Performance of Court of Appeal Bolstered by DCM

Efficiency in the operations and performance of the Court of Appeal has been bolstered by a Differentiated Case Management (DCM) system, says President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Patrick Brooks.

The system is designed to transform court processes by reducing delays and eliminating the backlog of cases.

During a ‘Conversation with the Judiciary’ forum, held at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston, on Friday (March 10), Justice Brooks said the system works by using a “set of principles and techniques” that proportionately matches court resources to various types of cases, depending on the level of complexity.

“We are in our second term of using this system, and we have some positive results. With the DCM, no case should be in the Court of Appeal beyond two years after the receipt of the papers from the Trial Court,” he argued.

Additionally, he said that stricter standards for single Judges of Appeal to turn around “applications which they have to consider for leave to appeal” were also implemented.

Justice Brooks said Special Panel hearings, which allow “simple expedited appeals”, were introduced last term.

“Judges who hear those appeals will often deliver their decision on the same day that the appeal is heard. The result of these initiatives is that we have significantly shortened the time that these cases will spend in the court,” he said.

Three sittings of these expedited appeals were carried out last term. “In those sittings, 11 were heard, eight of them were disposed of during the same week of the hearing and a similar arrangement is set for this term,” Justice Brooks said.

Other initiatives being undertaken to boost efficiency involve the inclusion of keywords in judgements to aid researchers in finding particular cases as well as reducing the time allotted for oral arguments in court.

“We’re using more endorsements and memoranda of reasons instead of written judgements,” the President disclosed.

The Court of Appeal, which is the highest court in the country, has 13 Judges, including the President and a staff comprising 50 persons, including a Registrar and a Deputy Registrar.