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Lawyers rap authorities for not rewarding colleague
By T K WHYTE Observer correspondent
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine - Lawyers attending a function at the police academy, Twickenham Park, last week to honour Lorna Errar, who resigned from the judiciary to take up the post as deputy public defender in Kingston, used the forum to express anger over Errar's non-promotion to the supreme court bench.
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| Errar... who resigned from the judiciary to take up the post as deputy public defender in Kingston |
The lawyers, many of whom are practising in St Catherine, said after giving 16 years of dedicated service as a resident magistrate, Errar should have been promoted. They have rebuked the justice ministry for not encouraging experienced and upright officers with just rewards.
Errar took up her appointment on April 1.
"She should not be allowed to depart from the judiciary with her exemplary knowledge of the laws, her remarkable sense of justice and humility mixed with wisdom and her fair and balanced judgement without being fully compensated by the judiciary," submitted senior attorney Earl Delisser, who led the charge to admonish the authorities for the treatment meted out to members of the public bar. He said it was "most unfortunate" that the veteran St Catherine resident magistrate should leave the courtroom without being properly recognised for her hard work, exemplary knowledge and experience of the law.
More than a dozen lawyers who spoke, lamented the fact that Errar had been bypassed for promotion, arguing she had done more than enough to merit promotion.
"She has more than merited the privilege of sitting on the (Supreme Court) bench down at King Street. "I think something is absolutely wrong with a system that can allow Lorna Errar, a jurist of great brilliance, to leave the public bar," another lawyer argued to assent from his colleague.
During her 16-year tenure on the bench in the parish, Errar, known as the "no-nonsense judge", has served on the criminal, civil, juvenile and coroners bench.
Speaking on behalf of the police, Detective Sergeant C Duncan, noted that Errar was serious in her dispensation of justice but allowed police officers giving evidence in court to feel comfortable when addressing the bench. He described her as an outstanding jurist who possesses a unique style to the approach of dispensing justice.
"She is known as the people's judge because of the unique way of communicating with people," Duncan said.
Meanwhile, Errar told the Observer that her new post will allow her to take care of people "at a different level".
"The time has come for me to move on. I will be taking up an appointment with the office of the public defender as deputy public defender where I might be able to take care of the people's business at a different level but where I will continue the fight for justice," she said.
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