Formal re-opening of the judicial courts CJ urges judges and lawyers to be more courageous and committed |11 January 2020
CJ Twomey delivering her speech. To her left is Justice MacGregor (Photo: Joena Meme)
In her annual speech to re-open all of the judiciary courts yesterday, Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey urged judges and lawyers to become more courageous and committed towards their work.
‘Courage and commitment’ is the chosen theme for the judiciary for 2020, and represents the continuation of hard work and devotion which CJ Twomey spearheaded since the beginning of her tenure five years ago.
For the first time in the ceremony’s history, the re-opening of the courts also included the participation and presence of the Court of Appeal and a speech by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Francis MacGregor.
“In 2020, it is my hope that each and every one of us will commit ourselves to being brave and courageous and meet our duties and obligations head on,” CJ Twomey said.
“This is particularly important as 2020 is an election year and we have seen that the courtroom becomes an important place to resolve political disputes. We must not shirk our responsibilities for fear of criticism. But each and every day, judges must prepare for cases and when they set dates they should honour them,” she stated.
To the lawyers, CJ Twomey sent out an appeal for them to demonstrate further commitment to their work and their clients in order to ensure that court cases are dealt with in an efficient and timely manner.
“Lawyers must turn up, and come prepared. You must offer your clients the honest, legal position and not give them false hopes,” CJ Twomey stated.
“Lawyers who are engaged in other businesses need to seriously consider whether they are able to perform their obligations as legal practitioners diligently. And if not, must choose whether to remain in practice. We must redouble our efforts to complete the work we have started and be bound by the principles that we have adopted,” she added.
Attorneys have also been urged to hold each other accountable and to not turn a blind eye if they notice a wrong in the system.
“The enemy to courage is indifference and to commitment is exhaustion. We must actively guard against both,” CJ Twomey highlighted.
In what was her fifth and last speech as chief justice, CJ Twomey walked her audience through the various achievements of the judiciary during the five years she has been serving as chief justice.
According to CJ Twomey, they have been able to reduce the “unacceptable levels” of backlogged cases with 2017 being the year in which they cleared the highest number of cases.
In the past two years, the courts have also reduced the remaining backlogs by close to three-quarters from 400 backlogged pending cases in January 1, 2018 to 112 cases as of December 31, 2019.
CJ Twomey claimed that 146 backlogged cases were dealt with in 2019 alone, adding that the average age of their pending cases have dropped across the board.
She further revealed that four out of the twelve divisions in the judiciary have completely eliminated their backlogs.
Meanwhile, a total of 4239 cases were filed in 2019 while 4043 were completed although this excludes statistics from the Family Tribunal.
To note, these details are being made available in the judiciary report for the period 2018-2019.
According to CJ Twomey, the ability to complete cases is still dependent on the availability of lawyers and the willingness of external stakeholders, such as the police, medical professionals, land surveyors and expert witnesses, to participate in the court cases.
Speaking to the media afterwards, CJ Twomey highlighted that the judiciary has come a long way from where it was in 2010, where it had pending cases from up to 1996.
“This was one of my first challenges as Chief Justice, and I’m proud and satisfied that it is no longer the case. Now, there are hardly any cases that last longer than three years in the courts and if there are cases going on more than three years, it is considered as a backlog case. When this happens, I run after the judges responsible for these cases and discipline the lawyers who do not turn up for their cases.”
She noted that this has resulted into a boost in the perception of the judiciary, which many people had previously grown to distrust.
To continue in this stride, the judiciary hopes to become more transparent and accessible, and hence will be developing and launching a new website during this year to better meet the requirements of the Access to Information Act.
Meanwhile in his speech, Justice MacGregor stressed on the importance of establishing a better rapport between the bench (judiciary) and the bar (attorneys).
“It has been a past year with some formidable challenges and hurdles; some continuing from the past years. Despite these we have endured and persevered,” Justice MacGregor noted.
“I appeal for balance, respect, good working relationships and dialogue between the three branches of state – the judiciary, the executive and the legislature,” he added.
The re-opening ceremony concluded with refreshments during which guests such as Vice-President Vincent Meriton and members of the diplomatic corps had the opportunity to interact with the judges, lawyers and staff of the judiciary.
Elsie Pointe