Too much backlog in Gun Court
April 26, 2007
The Gun Court, which was set up to try gun offences within seven days, has a notoriously huge backlog. Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe and Mr. Justice Donald McIntosh reduced the backlog significantly in early 2006, after lawyers complained to The Gleaner about the backlog, but it continues to rise. Checks revealed last week that in 2006, a total of 711 new cases were added to the Gun Court list.
Each week, two high court judges preside over separate daily sittings in the Gun Court in Kingston which is at the Supreme Court building, downtown Kingston. From Monday, March 19 to Thursday, March 22, 2007, for instance, there were a total of 51 cases before the Gun Court, 28 listed before one judge and 23 before the other. (Fridays are usually reserved for mention and other date-setting matters.)
A judge could have from six to eight cases on his or her trial list each day, but it is rare for more than two cases to be completed on any trial day.
In the Corporate Area's RM division of the Gun Court, Half-Way Tree, which conducts preliminary inquiries in cases involving the use of the gun, the daily case load of the single RM is estimated to be twice as high as the case load in the Gun Court in King-ston. The list in the RM Court has anywhere from 60 to 70 cases each week.
Lawyers say it is "frightening" that the daily disposal rate at Half-Way Tree is just about two per week because many of those accused are in custody.
The Regional Gun Court, presided over by a High Court Judge, sits in Montego Bay, the second city, where an RM division of the Gun Court also hears preliminary inquiries.
Daily increase
According to attorney-at-law Lloyd McFarlane, because of the large numbers of arrests in Jamaica for gun crimes, the backlog in the Gun Court continues to increase daily. He suggested that the office of the DPP weed out cases on the Gun Court list that "are going nowhere" and thus reduce the workload of judges who have to throw out such cases. He pointed outthat Jamaica has a crime problem and adequate resources were needed to deal with the problem.
The Night Court, which sits from 5:00-9:00 p.m., is credited with having reduced the RM Court backlog somewhat, but the problem with it, according to one RM, is that the stipend for night court session has remained the same since its inception in September 1995 and as a result, RMs are reluctant to volunteer to serve there.
No regard for Coroner's Courts
Coroner's Courts (a section of the RM Courts) which seem to be treated by the powers that be with even less regard than the Criminal and Civil divisions of the RM Courts, are overwhelmed by backlogs, with scores of inquests not having started even after years have gone by. Figures for 2005 show that 2,137 cases were sent to Coroners' Court islandwide that year but only 437 were disposed of, leaving a backlog of 1,700, an average of 130 for each of the 13 Coroners' Courts. In 2006, the Corporate Area Coroner's Court disposed of 60 cases, with 132 being traversed to this year. However, from January to March 12, 2007, only four cases were disposed of because of the problem of getting jurors to attend....
Author: Gleaner Reporter
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
