A NEWS headline which declares 'divorce for sale' is a startling index of social decline reaching up to the court system where wrongdoing is adjudicated. For in the normal course of things crime is committed on the streets, in private and public places and the offenders when caught are brought to book in the courts. So when such offences are perpetrated in a way that appears to threaten the integrity of the judicial system the matter must be thoroughly investigated.
The very notion of divorce points to failure of a legal union between husband and wife, gone awry for whatever reason. For the most part it involves emotional pain as well as financial dislocation and possibly trauma for children of the marriage.
So the legal resolution of the conflicts involved must have the integrity of precise documentation. For that process to be tainted by fraudulent devices such as forgery and impersonation is dastardly indeed.
That is the scope of the harm that false divorces can cause on the personal level in which expectation of freedom from a legal bond turns out to be non-existent and the basis of complications and cruel mischief. That the fraud can affect the very institution where legal penalty is imposed can stain the reputation of a Supreme Court in which high probity must be an indispensable condition.
As our report in yesterday's Gleaner indicated this is the second time in eight years that police have been called by court officials to investigate fraud involving divorce cases.
A case involving a Justice of the Peace is still pending from 1996 as the accused absconded bail and is still at large; an accomplice, a court employee wanted for questioning, has fled the island.
It may be that there is no foolproof defence against fraud in commerce and business or even in private dealings between individuals. Much depends on qualities of character and moral fibre. So in the administration of business at the workplace and the wide variety of workday associations appropriate safeguards should be put in place.
Administration of the court system is no exception. It cannot be beyond the judicial bureaucracy to tighten the procedures for dealing with documentation. Crime within the court system cannot be tolerated.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
