NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Legal Year for the country’s Judiciary officially opened via a hybrid virtual ceremony on January 12, 2022. The opening was held under the theme, ‘Centrality of Justice is the Way of Life in The Bahamas.’ Delivering remarks was Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senator the Hon. Ryan Pinder, who stressed the importance of ensuring the efficiency of the courts.

“It is fundamental that for any matter, especially in criminal matters, that proper evidence is marshaled, preserved, and utilized in court proceedings in a manner that preserves the integrity and faith in the process,” said Minister Pinder. “The enforcement agencies must focus on preserving the integrity of evidence when collected, stored and used in order to preserve the confidence of the administration of justice.”

He said that the government must also commit to providing the necessary assistance on the collection and evaluation of evidence.

“We will work with the Ministry of Health in order to shorten the timeframe to obtain pathologist reports for example. I am advised that it is taking for too long to obtain the reports, in certain instances more than a year to produce. The executive must do better at giving you the necessary tools to administer justice. Likewise, the executive must do a better job of providing the framework and infrastructure to obtain ballistic reports, forensic reports and provide an avenue for providing reliable DNA evidence.” He reiterated, there needs to be improvement in the collection, handling and evaluation of evidence to contribute to the efficient administration of justice.

Additionally, he said that steps must be taken to manage and organize courts and the administration of trials in order to provide more efficient and effective administration of justice.

“The move towards specialty courts is one that most of us as advocates, enforcement and the judiciary can agree, will agree, will contribute to the proper, and effective administration of justice. His Lordship and I have had numerous conversations on this matter, and have began identifying suitable locations in order to establish: Juvenile Court, Family Court, Sexual Offense Court and Commercial Court.”

Chief Justice, Sir Brian Moree, Kt, QC, who will be retiring this year, gave an overview of steps taken in 2021. He said that the 2021 Annual Report will be circulated within the next few days setting out an overview of the work of the Courts during the past 12 months. The Report includes key statistics for 2021 and other important information in connection with the progress in reforming and modernizing the Courts in The Bahamas.

He warned that The Judiciary must not be treated as another Government Department or agency, but that we must be reminded that an independent Judiciary is the ultimate custodian of a community’s rights and liberties.

“If we are to fulfill our vital constitutional role the Judiciary must be given adequate financial resources, competent staff, proper equipment and supplies and suitable physical premises to operate the courts. The Judiciary needs to have more control over its administrative, financial and operational matters in order to implement the necessary reforms within the court system. It is for this reason that I am disappointed that the Court Services Bill has not been passed by Parliament.”

The Bill was tabled in the House of Assembly last year but was not advanced prior to the dissolution of Parliament before the general election. The Chief Justice said he is currently in communication with the Attorney General on this subject and is encouraged by his assurance that this matter will receive the urgent attention of the new Administration: “I strongly urge the Government to re-introduce the Court Services Bill in the House of Assembly and expedite its passage and enactment into law. The Bill, if passed, would be a transformative legislative intervention which would fundamentally change the operations of the Courts.”

He said that although the pandemic changed the order in which business is conducted, the courts continued to be productive.

The long-awaited new Case Management System, known as JWorks, he added, has been installed and the configuration and migration of the data will be completed in February. The Go Live Dates for the various Divisions of the Court will start in February. JWorks will be installed across the court system including the Magistrates Courts, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. The migration of the Court of Appeal data will start later this month.

The E-Filing portal has been activated and the only delay is awaiting integration with the Government payment system to be completed before launch of this service. Lawyers and litigants should be E-Filing court documents in The Bahamas by the end of February.

“This will substantially change the function and role of the Civil Registry, and I will be saying more about this in the coming months,” said the Chief Justice.

During 2021, approximately 3.2 million pages of court records were digitized and these scanned documents will be ingested into JWorks over the next few weeks. Another 4.5 million pages of court records will be digitized between January and the end of July.

The Digital Court Reporting system is ready to be implemented in the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court and the Magistrates Courts and has already been activated in a pilot programme. The system will go live across the courts as soon as training of judicial staff is complete and the new Policy and Procedures Manual, finalized.

The Bail Management System has been launched and is operational. Effective 7 March, 2022 all bail applications in the Supreme Court will have to be made through the new Bail Management system thereby fully automating this process.

The Court Automated Payment system in the Family Magistrates Courts is operational. They are now working on increasing utilization through training and the launch of a public awareness programme.

The Chief Justice continued, the Supreme Court Criminal Division continues to have difficulties with fixing trial dates within reasonable time periods. He said Lawyers who practice in this area are accustomed to obtaining trial dates which are far into the future based on their calendar. “Every case must be considered on its own facts and circumstances but as a general principle the court will not surrender its calendar to the commitments of counsel. It is time that we address the problem of scheduling conflicts and adjournments. Lawyers who are booked for 18- 24 months into the future should not assume that this will dictate the pace of the case and the trial date. We will continue to rely heavily on remote video/Zoom court hearings in the Supreme Court.”

He said he is in discussion with the Attorney General with regard to conducting remote court hearings in the Family Islands using court rooms where available and the Office of the Administrator when there is no court room. He is also discussing efforts to locate suitable premises for a breakout Juvenile Court, a Commercial Court fitted out with the necessary technology, and a separate Family Court with all the ancillary support services including counseling, social services, child care facilities and mediation services.