Chief Justice troubled by increase in domestic violence cases

There has been a significant increase in the number of divorces, domestic violence, and maintenance applications.

“Clearly we have a social problem that needs attending to,” Chief Justice Ivor Archie said as he presented some of the Judiciary’s figures over the past year from the various court divisions and some of the strategies to reduce delay and backlog in the judicial system.

For the family court division in 2022/2023, Archie said there were 9,051 new filings of which 3,173 were domestic violence, 2,992 were divorces and 1,766 were maintenance. The previous filings were in the range of 5,500 per year.

Of these numbers, the Judiciary managed 7,446 determinations or six per cent more than 2021/2022 and 24 per cent more than the ten-year average.

Of these, he said only 35 per cent, 30 per cent and 57 per cent of matters in Port of Spain, Tobago and Princes Town, respectively, were less than six months old at the time of determination.

“We are not meeting our targets, especially for domestic violence, which may be life or death, and that is a human resource issue. We need more appropriately trained staff.”

The Chief Justice was speaking at the ceremonial opening of the 2023/2024 law term at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port of Spain, at which he called for administrative and financial autonomy for the judiciary and public-sector reform.

In the criminal division of the High Court, 184 indictments were filed last year.

In March, Archie had expressed concern that only 11 indictments had been filed, at the time, in a response to complaints by Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, about staff shortages and a warning that the criminal justice system was near collapse.

On Friday, as he presented a snap-shot of the figures, Archie said determinations in the criminal division were at 175 or a 95 per cent clearance rate, which, he added, represented a significant recovery from 2019/2021 when only 99 matters were determined.

Of the 175, only 33 per cent were less than three years pending in the High Court at the time of determination.

“We must do better.”

He expressed confidence that with the proclamation of the Administration of Justice Indictable Proceedings Amendment Act before the end of 2023, there would be a “significant increase.”

“We have almost completed the re-engineering of our internal workflows and will engage all stakeholders in the criminal justice sector later this month to continue joint preparation and training.”

He also bemoaned the increasing murder toll.

“This year, like 2022, we are on course to surpass 600. Understandably, there is much anxiety and, in that atmosphere, public calls for more accountability are not misplaced. Those of us who deliver public goods and services owe a duty of transparency.”

In estate administration, the figures provided by the Chief Justice showed a dramatic increase of about 25 per cent from pre-pandemic levels with the use of e-filing.

There were 4,803 filings. Grants issued increased to 2811, which, Archie said, compared favourably with the ten-year average of 2,630.

However, he again warned, “We run the risk of falling behind without the long-awaited legislation to establish the civil, estates administration and small claims division so that we can put in place adequate and appropriate staffing.”

In the civil division, filings were reduced from 4,629 in 2020/2021 to 4,548, but determinations were up to 3,575 from 2,872.

The Chief Justice said this compared favourably with pre-pandemic levels and of those numbers, 66 per cent of the cases disposed of were less than two years old.

At the children’s division, there was a five per cent decrease in filings from 677 to 646 and determinations fell by 15 per cent from 734 to 625. Forty-one per cent were less than one year old.

“This is also a resource issue. This jurisdiction is also one where speed is more critical,” Archie said.

He reminded that children's court matters stayed with the court for some time since the children who go through the system had to be monitored.

“There has been much discussion lately about children who are the victims of trafficking and not being brought before the court as required by law.

“The Judiciary will soon be inviting the relevant stakeholders including the counter-trafficking unit, immigration and other units of National Security, Education and Child and Gender Affairs to discuss multi-agency protocols for managing children who are the subjects of trafficking and sexual offences.”