Businessmen get insight into new Judiciary rules

The changes, highlighted by Master Christie-Ann Morris Alleyne — Court Executive Administrator of the Caribbean Court of Justice — will make the Judiciary more resolution-focused instead of just rights focused. It is also intended to make the system more welcome to litigants.

Speaking at a seminar hosted by the Dispute Resolution Centre at the TT Chamber of Commerce yesterday, which brought to the fore the new rules of the court and its impact on the business community, Morris Alleyne gave a detailed presentation on one of the major changes to the system — case flow Management.

Case flow management, she said, is the coordination of court processes and resources to move cases in a timely manner, from filing to disposition, regardless of the type of case.

She said the judicial system took into consideration numerous complaints from "customers" about the difficulty to predict the length of time cases took.

"Customers said the system was too slow, too expensive, too adversarial, too alienating and the language was too complex and confusing," she stated. Under the new court rules, a judge will be assigned to litigants to manage a specific case instead of the case being assigned to the court.

"In the old system, every time a file came up it had to be read over and over again and the lawyer had to go through the file from the beginning," Morris Alleyne said.

The process begins with the judge holding a case management conference (CMC) with the litigant and lawyer to discuss how the case would be handled. Unlike the old system, the litigant can give his views without taking an oath.

At the CMC, the judge will suggest a settlement, use mediation techniques to come to an agreement, and discuss costs.

"If the matter is not settled at the CMC, the judge will hold a pre-trial conference to manage the matters of the trial in order to make it as short as possible," Morris Alleyne stated.

"The intention of all of this is to allow matters to be removed from the waiting list as fast as possible," she said.

The setting of firm hearing dates is also one of the changes to the court rules.

Morris Alleyne said the Judiciary is aiming to have only 15 percent of case adjournments, or none at all.

"No system will work effectively if cases keep getting adjourned." Yesterday’s event brought together members of the business community, attorneys and members of the Dispute Resolution Centre.