WITH a backlog of more than 40,000 court cases, the Government says it will be vigorously pushing for the use of a plea bargain system to reduce the growing caseload.

Just last week, it announced the employment of 20 lawyers and several retired judges to help reduce the overwhelming backlog.

The country’s justice system has been grappling with the problem for years, which is due to several reasons including a lack of court facilities, a low case disposal rate, delays caused by lawyers and prosecutors, as well as an insufficient number of judges.

However, both the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Justice recently announced measures that they hope will address the problem.

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has declared that there will be a systematic drive to dispose of the majority of cases by way of guilty pleas rather than dragging matters through the courts.

Speaking on September 2 at a Clerk Induction Seminar at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston, the minister promised that a backlog reduction framework will take shape through the use of plea bargaining.

Minister Chuck also highlighted his vision of having a paperless court system, where state-of-the-art technology such as monitors and audiovisual equipment would be used so that cases can be tried expeditiously or within a reasonable time frame.

Further to that, he said the country’s Constitution stipulates that Jamaicans should have trials within a reasonable time and “a reasonable time should not be years”.

Meanwhile, Minister of National Security Robert Montague, who disclosed last week that Government has hired a number of lawyers and retired judges to help reduce the backlog, explained that the attorneys would help the police to prepare cases before they go to court and serve as court liaison officers for each Jamaica Constabulary Force division.

“The new lawyers should be able to move the files more quickly through the court system; especially as the overall justice system currently has a backlog of over 40,000 overall cases.

“By having the expertise in-house to see to the preparation and completion of the cases in court, it will reduce victimisation, lessen the matter of victims reliving the trauma of the incidents, and assist in ensuring justice is served for all Jamaicans,” he said during a town hall meeting at the Evansville Entertainment Complex in St Ann’s Bay, St Ann on August 31.

The minister said this move will also help to increase the morale among the police officers who suffer disappointment when their cases are thrown out by the courts.

According to Minister Montague: “Every week, in every parish, the police send at least one person to prison. However, the delays in the hearing of the cases in court are a hindrance to that process”.

These two strategies will be among other measures that were previously employed by the Ministry of Justice to reduce the backlog, such as case management, the passage of the amended Evidence Act which allows lawyers and prosecutors to agree to facts that will reduce trial time, and the implementation of the system where cases that are five years old and have not been tried are placed on a special list and are heard every Wednesday in the high court.