Sod turned for San Fernando District Court

Almost $80 million will be spent on the first phase of construction for the San Fernando District Court, which will soon be housed at the corner of Sutton and Irving Streets.

At the sod-turning ceremony on Wednesday morning, Attorney General and San Fernando West MP Faris Al-Rawi said there was urgent need for reform of the magistrates court system.

He said this included new physical infrastructure and new technological methods to speed up matters and new and effective processes to accommodate a faster judicial system.

He said, “The annual case load at the magistrates’ court is on average 146,000 cases per year. And yet we have 43 magistrates, now sistrict judges, managing a case load for years without any meaningful reform. No one paid attention to the flow of judicial management and judicial issues."

Four methods of reform will be addressed, he said: plant and machinery, people, processes and law amendments.

Al-Rawi said the San Fernando magistrates’ courts functioned in bad conditions, hence the need for the AG’s office to transfer 75,000 square feet of land that it owned to the judiciary.

He also added that space was necessary, and by the end of August the Judiciary will occupy the nine floors that the Parliament had occupied at Tower D at the International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain.

His sentiments were reiterated by Chief Justice Ivor Archie who said the construction was another step in the transformation of the criminal justice system.

He said, “The district courts have been hindered by inadequate systems and process flows, budgetary limitations, and unequal development. Over the years there have been attempts at improvements, but those have been stunted.

“As we embark on organisational reform, we focus on legislative reform, streamlining and designing new processes based on legislation, modernisation of services, re-engineering of key processes, organisation redesign, reorganising HR administration and services, retooling and retraining HR, development and utilisation of appropriate technologies.”

With covid19 posing restrictions on how the courts run, Archie said the transition from physical court hearings to remote hearings had been successful and will continue as necessary.

“A very important component of the remote hearings has been the ability to dial in from the prisons, so that we are saving costs, safety and time. We expect remote hearings to be a permanent part of the judiciary’s landscape.

“Although there are still challenges with jury trials, we are liaising with the legal profession to see how we can move those forward during the continuing period of restrictions for covid19, so that we do not develop too much of a backlog.”

Al-Rawi added that draft legislation to deal jury trials is ready to be presented to the Chief Justice and the Law Association and will be undertaken after election.

NIDCO chairman Herbert George said the first phase of the San Fernando District Court will constitute the sub-structural construction, to be completed within four months, and tenders will  be sent out thereafter for phase two.