Justice Minister Calls on Members to Work Together

Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, is calling on all members of the justice system, to work together, in an effort to ensure that the challenges facing the system are adequately addressed.
“I want to make a special appeal, as I ask for the co-operation of every judge, the attorneys, court staff, everyone in the justice system, who will have a role to play, in ensuring that the new system runs smoothly,” Senator Lightbourne emphasised, as she outlined the reforms to take place.
She was addressing the annual Assizes Church Service, at the East Queen Street Baptist Church in Kingston, recently.
According to the Minister, several areas are currently being addressed as part of the justice reform process, including “the acquisition of the three Caucus rooms at the Jamaica Conference Centre as additional court rooms, as part of the effort to address the backlog of cases in the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court.”
She also explained that real time court reporting is being introduced in four of the court rooms at the Supreme Court.
“There will no longer be the need for the taking of notes of the proceedings by the judge, prosecutor, defence counsel and the court reporters. The judge will be able to view the notes of the proceedings on the bench as it is written by the reporters, and at the end of the day, the transcripts will be made available,” she pointed out.
In addition, the Minister informed that the online computerisation of the records of the Civil Registry, computerisation of the court diaries, and the training of court reporters, have commenced.
Meanwhile, Senator Lightbourne said that a submission is before Cabinet, to establish the administrative arm of the Courts, which would be known as the Court Management Service (CMS), to be undertaken in three phases.
She explained that the Chief Justice would have responsibility for the administrative functions of the Judiciary and that a Principal Executive Officer would be appointed to head the CMS.
“Secondly, the transfer of additional court management functions, such as transcription services, judicial library and registry are currently assigned to specific court functionaries, under specific statutes of the CMS. Some of these will require legislation,” Senator Lightbourne disclosed, adding that legislative arrangements would transfer full control to the Chief Justice.
“The research and consequent legislative arrangements will transfer full control to the Chief Justice, addressing issues such as whether there would be a commission set up to deal with the representation of the judiciary for its budgetary provisions and an accountability framework,” the Minister said.
“These are all steps on the way to upgrading, modernising and transforming the nation’s justice system. We are well aware that it will be a work in progress for some time to come,” she added.