SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – High court judge Justice Courtney Day has warned against the practice of persons using doctors’ certificates as excuses not to serve as jurors when subpoenaed by the court.

Justice Day issued the warning during the opening of the Michaelmas session of the St Catherine Circuit Court in Spanish Town on Monday after he was advised by the police that out of the 33 summonses served on persons to attend as jurors, 10 applied to be excused on the grounds of illness by submitting medical certificates. As a result, the police said 25 more summonses had to be sent out.

The judge said while he was not questioning the authenticity of the certificates, he would carefully assess the reasons before granting any application of absence from the court on medical grounds.

“I will have to look carefully at people who apply to be excused based on medical grounds and assess the reasons, as some people went to the doctor only when they were served. Diabetes, blood pressure are (cited as) reasons for excuse, but that is not sufficient as everybody is affected with these complaints. Even judges are affected,” Justice Day said.

Thirty-eight cases are listed for trial, 13 of which are new cases with 10 traversed from the summer term. Eleven are listed as nolle prosequi.

On Monday, crown counsel Vaughn Smith told the court that sexual offences constituted the largest number of cases on the list.

“It is a worrying trend that 16 of these cases are for sexual offences, My Lord, ” he informed the court, adding that the trend was “of great concern to the police”.

There are five murder cases on the list.

Meanwhile, Justice Day declared that cases must be disposed of in 12 weeks. He also adjured senior attorneys to turn out at the start of circuit session, warning them that the importance of the circuit court was reflected in their presence at the beginning of the session.

He also warned the police to turn up at court, when it was discovered that three arresting officers were absent without informing the court.

“The rule of law remains ineffective if people are brought to court and the police don’t come. You cannot feel satisfied if the accused person is not tried. You have a responsibility to participate in the administration of criminal justice,” he told

the officers.

In the case of a detective inspector from the Spanish Town Criminal Investigation Bureau who was absent from a rape case, the judge told commanding officer in charge of St Catherine North, Superintendent Harry Daley, that he was demanding an explanation from the detective “before the end of the day”.

The trial judge said he had set a minimum standard to try at least three cases per week to speed up the administration of justice.