JPs from Kingston and St. Andrew Complete 60-Hour Justice Course

Thirty Lay Magistrates from Kingston and St. Andrew, who recently completed some 60 hours of training, designed to enhance their effectiveness in the country’s court system, will graduate tomorrow (June 4) at a ceremony to be held at the Justice Training Institute on Camp Road.
The course of study, which was conducted by Resident Magistrates, covered areas such as jurisdiction, statutory interpretation, criminal law, and torts such as false imprisonment, trespass, assault and negligence.
Director Principal of the Justice Training Institute (JTI), Audrey Sewell told JIS News that approximately 400 Lay Magistrates, also called Justices of the Peace (JP), have undergone training islandwide, under a new decentralized system of training. Another 114 JPs from Westmoreland are expected to begin training on June 16.
“We have decentralized the training programme,” Mrs. Sewell noted, explaining that, “in each parish, we have Resident Magistrates who conduct the training at the . court offices.”
Mrs. Sewell explained that in previous years, Lay Magistrates were trained at the Institute in Kingston, but since November 2004, a decentralized approach has been used, as it was the objective to have all Lay Magistrates trained in critical points of the law, before taking up their posts in court. “We want to ensure that as soon as they are appointed, they are trained and they hit the road running,” she said. She also added that, “right now it’s not a written requirement that they have to be trained, but that’s where we want to go to ensure that they have the necessary knowledge and competencies to function as Lay Magistrates,” she noted.