Dear Editor,
I cannot mind my own business.
It is unusual to write about the court, for who wants to play around with such powerful people who can’t mix freely and who can’t go anywhere freely and who have to be selective in the friends they keep?
However, the Minister of Justice, Hon Delroy Chuck, has opened Pandora’s Box, so let us begin. When I hear the minister authoritatively state that judges must deliver prompt judgements, two things come to mind
One, an old adage my mother used – ‘Make haste slowly’; the other, ‘the mills of justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine’.
We have confidence in our judicial system. I am not a lawyer, but when I look at a 1,431-page tome on Landlord and Tenant Legislation, interpretation and precedence I think I should caution the minister.
We are told that one Supreme court judge in the United States may have as many as 16 clerks [all lawyers] helping to prepare the judgement that he or she delivers – and these lawyers are the brightest law graduates.
Therefore, let the support staff be in place before we talk about speed of judgements.
Just recently, the National Action Coalition won a major victory on behalf of deportees here, and the pages under review were 368 pages of legal opinions and precedences.
Last week, we saw an example of social psychological warfare, as applied against the Courts. In Westmoreland, one complainant who felt his case had not been tried properly, whether in haste or otherwise, was accused of killing the defendant and ran off, allegedly leaving behind the ominous threat that he was going to kill the judge and the defendant’s lawyer. And yes, the TVJ movie last weekend was chosen to be Cape Fear, where a disgruntled defendant returned to kill the judge and defendant’s lawyer. Now, that is a not too subtle message, for what inference will the uneducated criminal draw from such an association?
I could stop there, but I would be remiss if I did not mention the Appleton Estate case where myself and tens of thousands of people, especially in Saint Elizabeth, felt that an aloof, uncaring judge in his Supreme Court chambers had stopped the sugar factory from operating and thrown lots of people out of their jobs and laid waste to their crops.
The Supreme Court had no PR machinery and we were therefore left to our own thinking that all was not right with the Courts, only to have a brilliant lawyer write that the ball is in fact in Wray and Nephew’s hands and the judgement given was both wise and sound.
Finally, the justice ministry would have us believe that being a judge requires no special qualification and ‘any lawyer can be a judge’. This is base propaganda not normally worthy of comment, for how then would you explain the fact that we all don’t trust lawyers – ‘there are no lawyers in heaven’ – yet we trust our courts?
Let the minister pick a fight with people who can publicly defend themselves – we prefer reasoned judgements. We do not want to undermine the court, for Pandora’s Box being opened we may never be able to close it again.
Dr J V Ford
jephthahford@hotmail.com
I cannot mind my own business.
It is unusual to write about the court, for who wants to play around with such powerful people who can’t mix freely and who can’t go anywhere freely and who have to be selective in the friends they keep?
However, the Minister of Justice, Hon Delroy Chuck, has opened Pandora’s Box, so let us begin. When I hear the minister authoritatively state that judges must deliver prompt judgements, two things come to mind
One, an old adage my mother used – ‘Make haste slowly’; the other, ‘the mills of justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine’.
We have confidence in our judicial system. I am not a lawyer, but when I look at a 1,431-page tome on Landlord and Tenant Legislation, interpretation and precedence I think I should caution the minister.
We are told that one Supreme court judge in the United States may have as many as 16 clerks [all lawyers] helping to prepare the judgement that he or she delivers – and these lawyers are the brightest law graduates.
Therefore, let the support staff be in place before we talk about speed of judgements.
Just recently, the National Action Coalition won a major victory on behalf of deportees here, and the pages under review were 368 pages of legal opinions and precedences.
Last week, we saw an example of social psychological warfare, as applied against the Courts. In Westmoreland, one complainant who felt his case had not been tried properly, whether in haste or otherwise, was accused of killing the defendant and ran off, allegedly leaving behind the ominous threat that he was going to kill the judge and the defendant’s lawyer. And yes, the TVJ movie last weekend was chosen to be Cape Fear, where a disgruntled defendant returned to kill the judge and defendant’s lawyer. Now, that is a not too subtle message, for what inference will the uneducated criminal draw from such an association?
I could stop there, but I would be remiss if I did not mention the Appleton Estate case where myself and tens of thousands of people, especially in Saint Elizabeth, felt that an aloof, uncaring judge in his Supreme Court chambers had stopped the sugar factory from operating and thrown lots of people out of their jobs and laid waste to their crops.
The Supreme Court had no PR machinery and we were therefore left to our own thinking that all was not right with the Courts, only to have a brilliant lawyer write that the ball is in fact in Wray and Nephew’s hands and the judgement given was both wise and sound.
Finally, the justice ministry would have us believe that being a judge requires no special qualification and ‘any lawyer can be a judge’. This is base propaganda not normally worthy of comment, for how then would you explain the fact that we all don’t trust lawyers – ‘there are no lawyers in heaven’ – yet we trust our courts?
Let the minister pick a fight with people who can publicly defend themselves – we prefer reasoned judgements. We do not want to undermine the court, for Pandora’s Box being opened we may never be able to close it again.
Dr J V Ford
jephthahford@hotmail.com