PM Moves Resolution to Increase RM Court Judges

A resolution to increase the number of judges at the Resident Magistrate Courts that can be appointed from 46 to 50, and in the Family Court from two to eight, was approved in the House of Representatives yesterday (Oct.14).
Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, who moved the resolution, said the increase in the number of judges to the Resident Magistrate Courts, was being done based on a recommendation from the Chief Justice.
“I suspect it has to do with the fact that, it’s not just more judges that you need, but more support personnel and services and that is a major area of constraint,” he said yesterday.
Member of Parliament for Central Kingston, Rev. Ronald Thwaites, had questioned whether the move to increase the number of Resident Magistrate judges from 46 to 50 would be beneficial, given the number of hours that court is actually in session, and the long holidays taken by some Resident Magistrates.
“The legal vacations are too long, maybe the time off is needed for particular officers, judges, to have time to contemplate their judgements, but to have eight, up to 12 weeks of the year where the superior courts are not sitting, is not a luxury we can afford anymore,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Golding said additional personnel are being trained through the Rattray Justice Training Institute.
“Members may be aware of a decision that Cabinet has already taken to establish the court services agencies, which is going to, in a sense, restructure the management of the court system and one of the important things that it is going to do is separate the clerks of the courts from the administrative part and leave the clerks of the courts to deal with the prosecutorial functions,” Mr. Golding said.
“The intention is to change the name of what we know as the Clerk of the Court to something like Assistant Prosecutor and they will now become a part of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, rather than being part of a civil service court structure,” he added.
The Prime Minister noted that there could also be a possible recruitment of part time persons to serve in the Resident Magistrate Courts as part time court staff “because while some courts are under pressure for time, there are some courts which are only being used for two days a week.”
“An audit is being done now to see how we can rationalise the space that is there so that we can use some of the courts on a more continuous basis rather than one and two days a week,” he said.