New court rules to change landscape of litigation

Members of the Judiciary discussed the changes at a breakfast seminar about the CPR yesterday.

The rules are to come into force at the opening of the new law term 2005/06, on September 16, and will regulate the conduct of civil litigation in Trinidad and Tobago.

The CPR will replace the existing Rules of the Supreme Court 1975 (RSC), which have been in place for about 30 years.

The seminar, hosted at Crowne Plaza hotel on Wrightson Road, was attended by a wide crosssection of the society including members of the business community, unions, Industrial Court, Environmental Commission, law schools, permanent secretaries from Government ministries, judges and attorneys. Chief of Defence Staff Brig Ancil Antoine, Col Edmond Dillon, NGOs and a number of other organisations were also at the seminar. Educating the public on the Judiciary’s new direction were Justice of Appeal Alan Mendonca; chairman of the Rules Implementation Committee, Gary Kelly; Court Executive Administrator, Robin Mohammed; Deputy Registrar and Marshal, Justice of Appeal Ivor Archie, and Tedd Joseph, the court protocol and information officer. The main contributor was Mohammed.

The CPR was born out of a desire for reform as a result of the failure of the RSC to meet the needs of the civil justice system.

The new rules are seen as a way forward to the elimination of the many problems that were part of the RSC.

There were several questions and suggestions from the audience, including one from Katharine Guy, chairperson of Disabled Women Network, who suggested that the CPR should be specially encoded on cassettes and CDs and also formatted in braille for those audibly or visually disabled, or both. Kelly promised to pursue the suggestion.