Who is Justice Judith Jones?

On January 24, 2004, she was one of two female members of the legal profession sworn in as temporary judges by President George Maxwell Richards.

Jones was a former member of the Law Association and Chairman of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority.

On December 23, 1998, Jones along with Alvin Fitzpatrick, one of the attorneys for the Chief Justice, Gregory Armorer and Indar Harracksingh of the Council of the Law Association, resigned in protest over proposed new civil procedure rules introduced by then Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide.

On December 10, 1999, de la Bastide described Jones, the then Director of the Legal Aid Authority as “petulant” when he chided her over the Authority’s failure to appoint an attorney to represent Anthony Nevada Johnson, in a murder appeal before the Court of Appeal.

Jones was invited to the court to explain why the Authority had not assigned an attorney to Johnson who was convicted for the murder of Prisons Commissioner Michael Hercules.

The then CJ said: “The Legal Aid Authority appears to have fallen down on the job.”

Jones replied that in her opinion, it was the duty of the court, not the Authority, to appoint attorneys.