Processing of Matters in Matrimonial and Probate Divisions Up to Date

The matrimonial and probate divisions of the island’s courts are now up to date with processing recently filed matters.

The progress being made has resulted in matters filed within the last three to four weeks being processed at this time.

Chief Justice, Brian Sykes, made the announcement yesterday (October 29), during his opening presentation at the Conversation with the Judiciary.

“In respect of specific divisions of the courts, the matrimonial division and the probate division, they are current as far as estate matters and also where divorce petitions are concerned. Now on the probate side, we have some very old matters that have been lying there for the last 20 years or so and we’ve been looking into those now to finally get rid of them. However, in case of filings we have actually been quite current and that is due to the hard work there by the deputy registrar and the staff in the particular registries,” Justice Sykes pointed out.

Meanwhile, Justice Sykes said the Gun Court has been performing particularly well, due to increased focus on hearing date certainty and reducing the number of matters set per day.

“So, when we first spoke of the reduced number of cases per day and increased hearing date certainty, some persons were skeptical, but what we can say is that based on the figures, we are on course to being completely backlog-free in the gun court by June 2021. So, what that means is that by June 2021, the cases that will be tried are cases that came into the court in late 2020 or early 2021, so that is something of significance that is happening there,” Justice Sykes said.