The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

CHIEF Justice Sir Brian Moree announced yesterday there will be a major contract signing to address the court backlog some time before the end of November.

Sir Brian spoke about the issue at the official launch of the Office of the Judiciary’s Bahamas Bail Management System.

The judiciary has been experiencing a backlog in cases and is trying to work its way through them. The Chief Justice said this is a “perennial problem” for court systems around the world.

“It involves systemic issues,” Sir Brian said. “It also involves scheduling issues in terms (of) coordinating the calendars of the court with the calendar of the lawyers. Let me give you one of the problems.

“In the course of a year even if we had judges working 24 hours a day, which of course is not possible, but assuming optimal productivity by judges there is no way that we can clear out of the system in a course of a year more cases than come into the system.

“In court terms, that’s known as your clearance rate for cases. I don’t know of many courts that actually clear out more cases in the context of a year than come in. So that is a problem... So we are looking at software that can help us in managing our backlog.”

He also highlighted initiatives such as defining the backlog, being able to track cases and applying special resources. He said civil procedure rules are being changed to try and simplify some of the procedures, reduce some of the timelines and stricter adherence to hearing and trial dates.

“That is a project that in terms of a contract we intend to sign with an expert on this,” he said. “He or she will be an external consultant experienced in working with courts to reduce backlogs. We’re going to look at it systemically and we’re going to look at it in terms of the rules. We’re going to look at it in terms of our practices. We’re going to look at it in terms of greater discipline, fewer adjournments, and what’s known as court hearing date certainty.”

One of the objectives of the backlog reduction programme that is being worked on is to develop a dashboard which will provide the metrics for measuring the backlog in each division and each level of the courts.

The chief justice said he intends to make available to the public the report received with regard to the level of the backlog, how it is measured, and what the metrics are in each level of the courts in all of the various divisions.

While the backlog is being tackled, it was emphasised managing the current level of work also needs to be in check to make sure it does contribute to the existing problem.

“It’s taking too long quite frankly to conclude cases within our system and we’re working hard to see how we can mitigate that so that it doesn’t contribute to the existing backlog. So, you have to do both of these things at the same time,” he said.