After big pay hike, Chuck calls for judges to expedite judgments

In the wake of the announcement that the nation’s judges are set to receive a significant bump in their salaries, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck is calling for them to deliver their judgments within the reasonable timeline of three to six months.

Chuck told The Gleaner today that he was tired of litigants and attorneys-at-law complaining to him about the failure of the judges to deliver judgments on time.

The minister disclosed that parish court judges, who he said are doing an excellent job in disposing of cases, are expected to get their salary increase within three months.

The salary increases for the chief justice, president of the Court of Appeal and other judges were announced on Tuesday.

Chuck argued that as stated in his Sectoral Debate contribution, the State was moving quickly towards Jamaica having the best justice system in the Caribbean and one of the best across the world.

He said that at the parish court level, the parish court judges are operating at world standard and that he hoped they would see a significant improvement in their remuneration when the next review of their salaries comes up.

“The new salaries for the judges definitely reflects a salary comparable with most jurisdictions across the world. The expectation is that our judges will continue to improve the quality of service and delivery of judgments to the world-standard level. In particular, we certainly hope that outstanding judgments, many of which are in excess of over a year, will now be delivered during this fiscal year. We hope that Chief Justice Bryan Sykes’ time standard of judgments being delivered within three months and certainly not exceeding six months will now become the norm,” Chuck said.

He also said that he hoped the clearance rate of cases in the Supreme Court would get closer to 100 pre cent or exceed 100 per cent, like the parish courts.

The minister emphasised that a number of matters can be disposed of fairly speedily and pointed out that probates and divorce matters should certainly be completed within weeks and, at most, months.