Local attorney bashes Guyana’s judicial
system
- over-reliance on confession statements, missing case files, slow dispensation of Justice
By: Kiana Wilburg
Accusations of sloth in the dispensation of justice and poor protection of case files are just two of the many stones that are often thrown at Guyana’s legislative system.
And now these accusations are coming from prominent Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev J. Datadin, who says they are not entirely unfounded and should not be readily dismissed.
Datadin said that while he applauds the recent move to increase the number of Judges at the High Court, he posited that there is a need for more judges in the Court of Appeal. And records of the courts need to be better protected, Datadin says.
“The frequent reports of tampering with case files and important files going missing are a cause for concern.”
Another peeve he has is the slow dispensation of justice.
“Trials, I can say from years of experience, occur in a timely manner in the Eastern Caribbean States and it is about time that Guyana implements the New Civil Procedure Rules. The New Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) are the rules of civil procedure used by the Court of Appeal, High Court of Justice, and County Courts in civil cases in England and Wales. The CPR was designed to improve access to justice by making legal proceedings cheaper, quicker, and easier to understand for non-lawyers. These have been out since in the early 2000’s and all the other Caribbean countries have adopted and implemented it. We have been toying with it; everything necessary to promote its implementation has been done. It has been approved by the Parliament and I have been hearing for some time that it will be implemented and five years have elapsed and it is not in place. It will most certainly help with the backlog of cases and it will also help to expedite trials.”
The Attorney-at-Law also believes that the high numbers of criminal cases in Guyana often rely too heavily on confession statements. In his view, it is about time that law enforcement officers video tape interviews with these suspects. This he said will remove significantly, the risk of allegations of individuals being forced into making confession statements.
Videotaping of interviews is employed by other countries and it has worked for both sides.
Datadin who has been practicing within the Whitworth Chambers for several years, said that like most lawyers in the Caribbean, he practices extensively. However, he is mainly focused on commercial, public and criminal law and has made a conscious effort to take on about 30 percent of the cases he handles pro bono.
He currently holds a Master of Laws Degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He has been a practicing lawyer since he was 24.
Though not a regular feature at the Magistrate’s Court anymore, Datadin says he likes the “rough and tumble” in the Magistrates’ Court. He says as fate would have it, he now does more appeals and as a result, features mostly in the Court of Appeal, the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Most of his practice is now in the High Court both in Guyana and the Eastern Caribbean.