| …What are the consequences?By Nadia GuyadeenEven with the introduction of mediation, there still remains an unprecedented backlog in the court system, and this seems to increase annually.Many have speculated about the reason why the litigation process is so slow, and the repercussions of this. Why are so few cases handled every year? Is it that there is need for more judges?Statistics from the court show that,Cheap Jerseys From China, at the end of last year, there were 512 criminal cases pending. Up to Tuesday, 35 cases had been filed for this year, and 24 cases were completed.Essentially, then, 11 cases have been added to the already high 512, which takes the number of pending cases to 523.It is a well known fact that if cases are prolonged for extended periods, there is a significant risk factor involved. Witnesses or parties involved might die, migrate, or simply disappear; files sometimes go missing,Sale NFL Jerseys, and there are a host of other probabilities.Recently, two rape cases before Justice Winston Patterson were dismissed because the complainants refused to offer evidence against the accused.These persons would have pressed charges, testified in the Magistrates’ Court, got the accused in the matters committed to stand trial in the High Court; but, when the matter is called, they refuse to proceed.In one instance, a man accused of raping and impregnating his niece was freed because she said he was her only source of income.The next week, a case was again called for the first time in the High Court, and the complainant told the court that she could not proceed,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, since she is seven months’ pregnant and she is a University of Guyana student. She added that she had gone through enough and could not do it anymore.This gives light to the fact that a person’s circumstances can change over a period of time, as both these cases were embroiled in the court system for about three years.MediationAttorney-at-Law and Member of Parliament, Khemraj Ramjattan, has said that mediation helped the backlog, but there is a lot more work that needs to be done.According to Ramjattan,Jerseys From China, lawyers and clients have been forced to deal with the Mediation Centre largely because of the extended period of time it takes for litigation in the High Court. As a result, there has been a growing number of cases which judges have referred to the Mediation Centre that are being resolved.However, he added that the percentage completed against the percentage of cases filed is very small,NFL Jerseys Cheap, and so there still remains a serious backlog. “There has been a positive development, but it has a very far way to go.”Ramjattan stated that the reduction in the backlog will come when judges take charge in adjudicating matters more speedily.He also said that the adjudication process is stalled because lots of adjournments are sought by lawyers. Lots of times the clients go overseas, and when their trial dates are called, there are adjournments. When fortuitously there are clients and lawyers, and the judges are ready, and the trial is completed, the judges sometimes take a long time to write up their decisions.“So I feel it is a problem with largely the quality of the judgeships…There needs to be lots more judicial training of our judges. They need to assert themselves over the court and the trial process more, so as to get on with the business of ensuring that matters get started, that the process continues quickly and that it is determined shortly thereafter.”Director of the Mediation Centre, Colin Chichester, has said that he had anticipated that by now there would have been a greater response to mediation.According to him, since mediation started in Guyana in October 2003, only 477 cases have been referred to mediation. He added that, so far, they have handled approximately 100 cases per year. “Speaking from my perspective as coordinator of the programme, I anticipated that by now we would have had a greater number of people coming to us for mediation…I expected it to be closer in terms of ratio,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, but it has not been so.”According to Chichester, as of now, the ratio is 65 – 35, with the larger figure representing the number of unsettled cases. This is not close enough, given the expectations of the mediation process when it started.Chichester stated that looking at 477 cases over a four to five-year period, mediation has not played an integral role in reducing the backlog in the court system. |
