‘Faze out police prosecutors’

A COMMITTEE established last year by Chief Justice Sat Sharma to find ways of reducing the backlog in the Magistrates’ Court has recommended that police prosecutors be fazed out and replaced by attorneys from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The committee, which was headed by Justice Mark Mohammed (a former DPP), sat for four months and handed in its report to the Chief Justice about a month ago. The committee, comprising persons within and outside the judiciary,  also recommended that legal aid services be extended. If funds are available, legal aid services should be extended to allow attorneys to be assigned to all police stations in Trinidad and Tobago to give advice to incarcerated persons, the report added. The committee also recommended that the Forensic Sciences Centre be beefed up with additional staff.

The committee looked at a proposal for the establishment of a Remand Court in the Magistracy, but decided against this idea. Instead, members proposed the introduction of a case management list into the Magistrates’ Court. This, according to the report, is to work in the same way as the Cause List in the High Court. The committee recommended that a court be devoted full time in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando to deal with the Case Management List. However, one day each week should be put aside for this list in all other Magistrates, courts in the country. Matters for case management include defence representation, disclosure, pre-trial issues, guilty pleas, and plea-bargaining issues. According to the report, a written questionnaire must be filled out by both prosecuting and defence attorneys, similar to the one used for the Cause List in the High Court.

The committee recommended the introduction of case flow management rules to deal with procedure and agreed that a model in place in British Columbia in Canada be used. The committee felt that reform of the criminal justice system must be carried out if the recommendations are to work. “Unless the reform of the entire criminal justice system and its constituent agencies are addressed, the proposed Case Management List could very well fail,” the report added. The committee further recommended an amendment to the Jury Act to enable judges to ask a series of structured questions at the point of the delivery of the verdict in certain matters. Contacted last night for comment, CJ Sharma felt the report was an excellent one. “All the players participated, including those outside the judiciary like the police and the prisons.”

Sharma said he wrote to Attorney General Glenda Morean asking that a Task Force, comprising the members of the same committee, be appointed to implement and draft legislation so the recommendations will become a reality. “I intend to pursue this right to the end,” the Chief Justice assured. “I am grateful for the commitment and dedication shown by the committee and I want to assure that these recommendations will go a long way in dealing with critical issues.” The committee comprised members of the Law Association, the Criminal Bar Association, the Southern Assembly of Lawyers, DPP Geoffrey Henderson, the Tobago Lawyers’ Association, Deputy Chief Magistrate Deborah Thomas-Felix, the Court Executive Administrator Christie Ann Morris-Alleyne, the Director of the Forensic Sciences Centre Yolanda Thompson, the Commissioner of Police and the Deputy Commissioner of Prisons.