Courts begin night sittings
THE long-anticipated night court will begin today at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts starting at 15:00hrs and ending at 20:00hrs daily.In a notice published in the daily newspapers by acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Carl Singh, the public is being advised that “there will be additional sittings of the Magistrates’ Courts in Georgetown.”
Regular sittings in the court will continue from 09:00 hrs to 14:30 hrs.
“Persons with queries or needing assistance with locating their court, can contact the help desk, prominently located on the ground floor of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court,” the notice said.
The move to have night court is aimed at easing overcrowding at the country’s prison facilities, as well as significantly reducing the huge backlog of cases which have kept several inmates on remand for years.
Prior to the March 3 prison riot, Government had discussed plans to commence night court in an effort to ease the prison overcrowding which eventually claimed the lives of 17 inmates; however, the move to have the night court started was fast-tracked by this situation. It is believed that with the start of this court, opportunities exist for those placed before the courts to appear before a magistrate and pay their fines without having to be absent from work.
Former President of the Guyana Bar Association, Christopher Ram had said the association supports and will continue to support initiatives that will accelerate the judicial process.
He had expressed some concern about the number of judges and magistrates that are available to facilitate night court.
“We have to ensure that there are enough judges and magistrates to do the night job because we cannot have the same people working during the day working in the nights,” Ram said.
From all indication, it appears as though Government’s focus will be at the level of the Magistrates’ Court but the President of the Bar Association said “ideally they should do both the Magistrate and High Courts because there is backlog at both levels.”
On March 16, the Prime Minister led a Government team to a meeting to discuss the backlog of court cases with a team from the Judiciary, headed by Chancellor Singh.
Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan and Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams were part of the Government team.
On the Chancellor’s team were Chief Justice Yonnette, Cummings-Edwards; Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack; and Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan. That meeting was deemed a success by the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister described the meeting as “very successful”, adding that there were “wide-ranging discussions aimed at trying to get trials speedily held, to clear the congestion in the prisons”.
