Courts Are Performing – Justice Minister

Minister of Justice, Hon. Delroy Chuck, says the Courts have been performing and improving in the delivery of justice.

“In the Parish Courts, they have not only reduced the backlog of cases but 95 per cent of the cases are tried within 24 months, which means that the backlog is less than five per cent. I must say 90 per cent of the cases were tried within 12 months. So, the Parish Courts are now performing at world standard,” Mr. Chuck said.

The Minister was delivering his presentation in the 2023/24 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives, on May 2.

For the Supreme Court, the Minister informed that significant improvements have occurred, and the clearance rate is at 75 per cent.

“But in the Gun Court Division, there is no backlog. All the cases in the Gun Courts are being tried within 24 months and the average time for cases in the Gun Court is now 15 months. So, those cases that came under the new Firearms Act, over 300 cases, they are likely to be tried during this year [or] early next year,” Mr. Chuck said.

For Probate and Divorce matters, there has been steady progress. In Estate matters, for 2022, the average time to dispose of an estate case is 18 months. The oldest case disposed of was 33 years, while the shortest time taken to dispose a case was two months.

Mr. Chuck said a similar situation pertains with the Family Division of the Supreme Court, where the longest case disposed of in 2022 took 33 years, while the shortest was four months.