An update on the progress of justice reform as far as the judiciary is concerned was given by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla at a recent public forum. The first part of a summary of her presentation was published last Tuesday. The concluding portion follows:

Two years after the launch of the Justice System Reform Project, important progress has been made, but there are many other areas of improvement to be addressed. Justice McCalla made reference to an announcement by the prime minister in 2007 that the court would be granted its own “cheque book” which is translated to mean its own budget. Many people believe that that intention has been fully translated into action. For instance, a new entity, the Court Management Service (CMS), is not yet operational. Hence, any improvements in the courts have been facilitated by the Ministry of Justice.

Cabinet has granted approval for the creation of the CMS and funds have been earmarked for its start. The CMS will be headed by a principal executive officer who would be answerable to the chief justice. It is intended to grant full independence to the judiciary regarding administrative matters. There is recognition by international instruments such as the Commonwealth principles that if the judiciary is dependent on the executive branch of government, in respect of administrative matters, it is not truly independent. This writer happens to know that at present the chief justice does a great deal of the administrative work for which she was not trained, but she is doing well. As a result, she spends less time on the bench where her talent abundantly lies.

It seems to me that the appointment of a communication officer for the Supreme Court ought to be another priority. By tradition the chief justice, president of the Court of Appeal and judges do not deal with the media. This is often done by the Ministry of Justice. The need for a communication office was exemplified by the following matter which was investigated by this writer. Recently, a party applied to the Supreme Court to have the restrictive covenant on a property modified or discharged to permit a proposed development. According to an affidavit filed by the party when the matter came before the court, a man holding himself out as an attorney-at-law, who was unknown to the party and is not registered on the roll of attorneys and therefore not admitted to practise in the courts of Jamaica, without any instructions from the party purported to have a Consent Order made. The Consent Order was inconsistent with the application that was made to have the restrictive covenant removed.

The application was refused by a judge in the Supreme Court and an appeal was made in the Appeal Court which was dismissed with the judge who promised to give his reasons in writing later. Meantime, the party has incurred expenses in filing an appeal to Her Majesty the Queen in Privy Council.

This column wanted to know what steps were being taken by the Supreme Court to

prevent a recurrence of such an unfortunate incident. The information was sought from the registrar of the Supreme Court and the registrar of the Court of Appeal but both offices said that they had not heard of the incident. In the case of the Supreme Court registrar, a person who claimed to be a senior official refused to give her name to me which I thought was rather backward in this the 21st century. An official in a government office refusing to give her name! The need for a communication officer is indeed urgent.

To continue with the summary of the chief justice’s presentation: There have been legislative interventions in several cases with the objective of addressing the backlog of cases in the Supreme Court and the Resident Magistrate courts. By virtue of a recent amendment to the Jury Act, the responsibility for compiling jury lists and serving of summonses has now been passed from the police to the registrar of the Supreme Court. This amendment seeks to address the problem of insufficient jurors attending court.

Currently, the new method of serving jurors is being utilised and proving to be effective as more jurors are now responding positively. However, the police are still being utilised as process servers as well. A comprehensive jury management programme will see the merging of the Tax Registration Number database and the electoral database to allow for the random selection of jurors and the generation of jury duty summonses. The technology to have the system up and running has been acquired.

There is a need to improve the physical facilities of courthouses. The stark reality is that the Supreme Court has outgrown the space available. The Civil Registry, which is the nerve centre of the court, is bursting at the seams. A building which formerly housed the National Commercial Bank has been acquired for the expansion. Until its refurbishing and readiness for use, new judges cannot be taken on despite the passage of legislation to increase the number of judges and masters of chambers.

The modernisation of the judicial system through the integration and use of information technology is proceeding. The Judicial Enforcement Management System is now used at the Supreme Court to initiate and maintain electronic records of all cases. However, for many reasons, there have been delays in having it fully operational. With respect to real-time transcription, a term used for transcription by court reporters, there is Computer-Aided Transcription to deliver information to the computer screen of presiding judges within a few seconds of the word being spoken. It is operational in eight courts at the Supreme Court. This is a ground-breaking activity in Jamaican courts. The effect of this new system is to provide transcripts of evidence more speedily for people who have appealed.

However, court reporters need additional training and equipment in order to attain maximum efficiency. The Ministry of Justice is to be commended for initiating this project. There has been evidence of the positive impact that this system has had on the availability of transcripts.