There still exists an uncomfortably high amount of backlog within the island’s court system.
This revelation comes from outgoing Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham, as he addressed attendees of the Court-Annexed Mediation Workshop hosted by the Supreme Court and the Barbados Bar Association on Monday.
He said after seeking assistance from Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST) Project to undertake a detailed analysis of case processing in the island’s court system back in 2020, the findings of the report have been handed over to him, with some concern data being outlined.
He said: “The average hearing that a civil/commercial matter takes is deeply troubling reading; in 2017, 1 361 cases were filed, the matters that were completed in that period, let’s treat that period as a year or so, 290. So the clearance rate was 21 per cent. The average hearings per disposition – the number of times you go to court – 27.88.
“In 2018, 1314 cases were filed; matters disposed, 258; percentage clearance rate, 19.63; average hearings per disposition, 30.88. So we are not clearing…then we are going to court frequently.”
He added: “Matters go into the court system and they never seem to come out, and we go to court frequently. The question is, ‘to do what? Without in any manner trying to confuse, I wanted to give you an accurate assessment and feel for the tardy manner by which matters progress through the court system and are ultimately resolved.
“The accepted clearance to ensure that a court is not accumulating a backlog of cases is to clear/dispose of at least as many cases as has been filed/reopened/reactivated in a period, by having a clearance rate of 100 per cent or higher. That’s the consultant’s report and I agree with it.”
The CJ stressed that a thorough change and reorganisation within the country’s judicial processes are needed as a matter of urgency.
“This is a reengineering process, the outlines of which have already started, but it needs to have a team dedicated solely to that mission, and it is urgent.”
