Chief Justice Bryan Sykes says last Friday’s launch of a strategic plan for the Jamaican judiciary — the first of its kind in the country’s history — has sounded the death knell for awkward practices in the past and “marks a new beginning in the way that our courts operate and are managed”.

The plan, titled ‘Benchmarking the future: Courting Success’, covers the period 2019 to 2023 and is a road map towards achieving the vision of the judiciary being the best in the Caribbean in three years and one of the best in the world in six years.

Speaking at the launch at Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St Andrew, Justice Sykes — who crafted the plan — said it built on the legacy of those who went before and paid homage to the contribution of all the courts to the stability enjoyed by the country.

“It is important to recognise that when we have other countries undergoing the stresses and strains which occur when a judiciary delivers unpopular decisions in other countries, the country becomes fragmented and difficulties arise, and we have not had that in Jamaica, and I think that is also attributable to the executive that they have accepted the decisions of the courts, even if they are not in agreement with all of them,” the chief justice told guests.

In the meantime, he said, “there is something in this plan for everyone.”

“It is designed to reduce wait times for judgements, court records, responses to basic things such as correspondence and to reduce the number of police officers who attend court on any given day, and so when we speak about hearing date certainty, when we speak of having the requisite number of cases set for the day, this has a knock-on effect,” he noted.

“When we publish these details on the website, it means that the commanding officers in these parishes will have greater control over their resources — both human and material. It means then that when we publish the lists, the commanding officer for each division will know which cases are listed for court and also which police officers should be there,” he pointed out, adding that “in the past, the commanding officer would simply be told ‘we have case today in court, you know’ and he is gone for the rest of the day”.

“That will now become a thing of the past,” the chief justice said, pointing out that people will have knowledge of case dates “weeks in advance”.

“As it presently stands, all the parish courts are able to publish their lists online, well in advance, and so we are pushing in that direction so that litigants and other court users will know if they miss the court date, when the next date will be. Some courts have started, but we are going to ensure that all the parish courts, certainly by April 1, will have the lists published online,” Sykes outlined.

Turning to the benefit of the plan in determining appropriate and realisable time standards, Justice Sykes said, “Unless we have time standards for all our processes there is a real risk of denying litigants their constitutional rights to a fair hearing before an impartial court within a reasonable time. Time standards go a far way in ensuring that there is access to justice for all. It minimises the ability of the powerful to overwhelm the less well-endowed by using their financial muscle to have unnecessary applications and court proceedings.

“Time standards also help to reduce efficiency-based corruption… We will reduce the temptation for persons to try and influence our court staff by improper means so they will know that when they file their documents or whatever process they are seeking from the court there is a known and disclosed time standard so there is no need to be trying to encourage the process by illicit means; it won’t eliminate all corruption, but certainly will reduce the temptation to circumvent legitimate management,” he added.

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, in congratulating the chief justice on the effort, said the Government will do everything in its power to provide the resources to ensure that the judiciary achieves its targets annually.

“When you look at the plan, targets have been set for the next five years, one year having gone already, and so if the targets are not being reached we need to examine annually, if and why they are not achieved, and if the issue is one of resources I would like to commit the executive to provide the necessary resources so they can be achieved,” Chuck pledged.

In the meantime, noting that there were no targets in the document for the delivery of judgements, Chuck said he took comfort in the fact that the chief justice has instructed his judges that judgements must be delivered within three to six months, preferably orally.

“I would say, some of the best judgements are those delivered immediately after a case is finished or within hours afterwards. Where cases are complex time will be needed to write the judgements, but even if written judgements are needed it would be most appropriate to give judgement and hopefully write the judgements afterwards…because litigants complain bitterly about the length of time they have to wait for judgements, and having waited years for the case to be tried to wait again for years to have the judgements delivered is real disappointment and frustration,” the justice minister said.

Added Chuck, “So, as we go forward, let me hope that your unwritten part of the plan, the delivery of judgements within three to six months, can be kept.

President of the Court of Appeal Justice Dennis Morrison, in welcoming the initiative, said the chief justice was to be applauded for the energy and single-mindedness with which he has promoted it.

“A strategic plan for an organisation such as a judiciary is a more complex and, at the same time, a vastly more ambitious affair because it involves working with a market that is not always predictable in terms of size and composition and which, because it does not enjoy the luxury of choice of provider, is ever more demanding and, of course, the question of charging a higher price for the services we give is completely out of the question,” Justice Morrison said.

“The truth is that soldiering on from year to year without a vision and a strategy is a sure means of achieving Einstein’s definition of insanity, which is to do the same thing over and over but expect different results every time. This strategic plan is to be welcomed,” he said.

In addressing the justice minister’s plea for speedier judgements he, however, argued that delivering judgements on the heels of a case was “not always as simple as that” but pledged the support of the Appeal Court judges during “the exciting times that lie ahead”.

“We look forward to working with the chief justice in all the improvements he wishes to make and we look forward to the great improvements that surely lie ahead,” Justice Morrison said.