Senior Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen has fired back at criticisms that the Bahamianisation of the judicial system has been a “colossal failure.”
In fact, Judge Allen says, at no time in the history of The Bahamas’, has such a “tremendous” caseload existed and so much demanded of so few.
While the case load may be extraordinary, her comments do not adequately refute the fact that the Bahamian judiciary is a colossal failure.
“My considered view is that our judiciary, which has only had a significant complement of Bahamians within the last 15 to 20 years, is a success,” she said.
The acting chief justice was responding to an editorial which appeared in The Tribune calling the Bahamian judiciary a “collossal failure”.
The editor’s comments were concerned with the collective failure of the entire judicial system, not just the judges and magistrates.
But Justice Allen was out to defend the judges. She was addressing new counsel and attorneys, who were recently called to the Bar.
“The spiraling of crime in our country has placed a severe strain on the administration of justice with the astronomical increase of serious criminal cases before the courts,” she said.
Allen fails to accept the judiciary’s responsibility for the case backlog. If judges would enforce the law, and not continually allow attorney to abuse the system, there would be a much smaller backlog.
Some of the ridiculous defences that Wayne Munroe and Murielle Ducille present to the court would be funny if the cases were not so serious.
And lawyers like Phillip ‘Brave’ Davis and Godfrey ‘Pro’ Pinder are experts at delaying trials for all sorts of silly reasons which some judges seem to allow.
Mrs. Allen said all judges, including Bahamians, have performed well.
In fact, she said any failures in the system cannot be placed at the feet of the Bahamianisation of the judiciary.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) also recently disagreed with the Tribune editorial.
