STATE LAWYERS CONTINUE SICKOUT

Criminal courts throughout the country were shutdown yesterday as protesting  State prosecutors went on their second day sickout.  The prosecutors  are protesting  poor terms and conditions.

In the meantime, Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson met with Attorney General Glenda Morean yesterday to discuss the  sickout action. At that meeting it was agreed that a representative of the protesting attorneys be invited to meet with the AG to discuss their grievances. Judges sitting in the Assizes in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando had to adjourn matters listed to start before them yesterday.  Some were adjourned to today and others to later in the week or next week. Among the affected cases to be adjourned was the murder trial of former Government Minister Dhanraj Singh. Singh’s trial was adjourned to today.

In Port-of-Spain, a murder trial which had started before Justice Melville Baird was adjourned to September 29, while a sexual offence matter before Justice Alice Yorke Soo-Hon also had to be adjourned. In the other courts,  matters which were listed to start yesterday had to be adjourned when prosecutors failed to show. In San Fernando, the murder trial of two men which started on Friday before Justice Herbert Volney was also adjourned. The men are charged with the double murders of pensioners Selwyn Grant and his common-law wife Ursula Innis.  Also affected were matters listed in Magistrates’ Courts in which State attorneys from the department of the DPP were expected to prosecute. The attorneys’ protest action started Friday last and DPP met with his protesting staff on Saturday.

Among the issues raised at that meeting, Newsday learnt, were a better pay package and their concerns if they are to replace police prosecutors in the Magistrates’ Courts. They also agreed with statements made by Chief Justice Sat Sharma at the opening of the new law term last week, that better terms and conditions in general should be offered to attorneys in the DPP’s department and especially for senior and experienced attorneys if the department is to attract and keep them. The CJ warned that without senior and experienced attorneys in the DPP’s department it would be like having to play cricket on a Lord’s wicket with coconut bats. The CJ had also suggested that State attorneys replace police prosecutors in the Magistrates’ Courts. Support for the prosecutors also came from the Council of the Law Association in a statement signed by its president, Karl Hudson-Phillips.