Protesting lawyers prevent colleagues from going to court

HUNDREDS of litigants were cheated of justice yesterday when the San Fernando Magistrates’ Courthouse was virtually shutdown when attorneys staged a one-day boycott to protest the derelict condition of the courthouse. Four Hundred cases including 30 matters of alleged domestic violence, which were listed for hearing yesterday, had to be postponed by the magistrates who presided in the four courtrooms. Over 30 attorneys who practise their trade Monday to Friday at this courthouse, mingled at the entrance gates. The protesting attorneys snapped at some of their colleagues who, oblivious to the protest and with scores of litigants mingling around, attempted to enter the courthouse. One attorney was held around the waist and pushed aside by his protesting colleagues as he attempted to sneak past them (the protesting attorneys) and get into the courthouse.

The frustration on the faces of scores of women and the elderly was noticeable as they sat waiting for cases to be called. Magistrate Ramraj Harripersad, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Magistrates (TTAM), presided in the Petty Civil Court where he was forced to postpone 50 cases. Among them, a visibly upset Harripersad said, were 20 cases of domestic violence filed by women against the fathers of their children. These cases, he said, needed “immediate and urgent attention.” “The consequences of these kinds of matters not being heard could be horrendous,” Harripersad, who also was forced to postpone 17 petty civil cases, told Newsday. Magistrates in each of the other three courts, Harripersad said, were forced to postpone an average of over 60 cases per court.

“Magistrates had no choice but to call these matters and issue new dates. Without attorneys, a magistrate cannot even fix a date for trial,” the TTAM president said. The attorneys’ boycott also stalled the work of professional bailors, justices of the peace listed to attend court, and hundreds of witnesses including medical doctors, licensing officers, immigration officers and personnel from the Ministry of Forestry and Customs department. Harripersad warned that a second day boycott of the courts could have “very serious and far reaching consequences for the administration of justice.” Attorneys last Friday gave notice of their intention to protest yesterday after the 28-day deadline, given by the San Fernando City Corporation to the Judiciary to implement repairs and renovations to the derelict courthouse, expired.