Justice of Appeal, Madame Justice Margot Warner has been described as a “first class human being”. That was perhaps her most important qualification to be a judge. Generous, compassionate and fiercely independent, she served the judiciary for 18 years, with distinction. She authored many important judgments, including the now famous “hijab” case and was the first woman to ever act as Chief Justice. She now has a little more time to pursue her other passions as an artist and musician. We shall miss her.

The retirement of these two distinguished jurists represents the passing of an era. They have left us younger judges enormous shoes to fill but they have also provided us a firm foundation. We salute them!

We also bid farewell to Justice of Appeal Stanley John who chose to depart well before his retirement age to pursue a career in the Bahamas. We wish him well in his future endeavours.

My tributes would not be complete without mention of Mr. Gary Kelly who has served the judiciary loyally and tirelessly for 18 years in the key positions of Administrative Secretary to the Chief Justice and latterly the Court Executive Administrator. Mr. Kelly had many options upon entering the legal profession, including remaining at his father’s law firm. He chose instead to devote his life to public service, at great sacrifice to his health, family and finances. He has helped to see us through several significant transformations and thanks can never adequately mark the value of his contribution. We wish him a long retirement in good health.

There are others who have left us this year and some are acknowledged in the Annual Report. Time does not permit me to mention all of them but it does not mean that our gratitude is in any way diminished.

My personal thanks go out as well to all the members of the judiciary staff, at every level, who have continued to provide unstinting support and service during the past year. I would also like to express our appreciation for the work of the MTS staff throughout the year and especially for the effort put out in preparing the premises for today’s activities. My special thanks to the Court Administration Department and all who have organised and executed today’s opening ceremony and other events. We could not do it without you! Last but by no means least, I must thank Canon Sampson of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity for graciously hosting this morning’s service once again.

And of course I would like to extend congratulations and welcome to Justices Stollmeyer, Narine and Smith who have been elevated to the Court of Appeal and to Justices Boodosingh, Mon Desir and Browne-Antoine who will replace them as permanent appointees to the High Court Bench

Fellow citizens:

The opening of the law term presents a rare occasion for the Chief Justice to address the national community and, where there are important matters to be discussed, it is an opportunity that cannot be squandered. I have therefore thought long and hard about the content of this speech. I have agonised about its tone and content, but there has never been any doubt in my mind that there are some things that I must say, things that I want us all to think about and things that must not be lost in a welter of statistical information.

The occasion of the Chief Justice’s speech at the beginning of the new law term has come to assume something of a traditional format. Last year, I took some trouble to set out the vision and plans that would guide us during 2008-2009 and succeeding years. I understand, therefore that you may be expecting a detailed account of my stewardship and the progress that we have made towards the fulfillment of our goals. Well, despite the loss of nearly $100 million form our budget last year owing to changed economic circumstances, we have made progress. But I do not want to dwell too long on that because much of it is recounted in the annual report, which you can read. I shall refer only briefly to our accomplishments because I really want to have a different conversation with the nation this year.

I could point out that some of our objectives have not yet been achieved because we have had to focus, as was intimated last year, on the difficult task of establishing the right human resource base to take us forward. Finding and recruiting the right people for key positions has been difficult. However, some key positions such as the Director of Planning, the Director of Human Resources and The Security Manager have been filled and we are in the process of populating a restructured Court Administration Department. We hope to begin that process soon for the Human Resources Departments. We are therefore now better poised to move forward, but I suspect that most people really want to hear about results, not explanations.

I could leap to the defence of the magistrates who, like all of us are not perfect but nevertheless only had 258 or 0.3% of the 79,226 matters disposed of appealed and of those only 49 or 19% overturned and say that criticisms of their performance are therefore exaggerated. These are published statistics and similar to those published last year, but facts are inconvenient things for those with an unbalanced agenda.

I could say that, of those jurisdictions that still cling desperately to the Privy Council, the percentage of the decisions of our Court of Appeal that are upheld is slightly better than the average but you can check the Privy Council website for yourself.

I could spend a considerable time listing the things we have managed to accomplish if that would give some reassurance, but I propose only to take a brief detour to outline some of the significant ones:

Phase 2 of the Point Fortin Magistrates’ Court refurbishment is now complete;

Construction service providers have been engaged and mobilised for the provision of modern facilities at Couva, Rio Claro and Siparia Magistrates’ Courts. Couva and Rio Claro will be completed before the end of this term and Siparia nearer the end of 2010;

Cabinet approval has been obtained for the acquisition of lands for the construction of the Chaguanas Magistrates’ Court Complex. The building originally earmarked to house the Court temporarily will now be used to accommodate a centralised Coroners’ court with minimal renovation and significant cost saving;

Several new positions of Coroner have been created and will be filled as soon as the infrastructure is in place;

The new training labs on Frederick Street are complete and provide a training environment that accurately simulates the courtrooms and registries in respect of processes and technology;

After sensitisation and consultation sessions with all stakeholders to refine the protocols, the videoconferencing equipment for the remand hearings has been successfully installed and tested at selected courtrooms in Scarborough, St. George West, and San Fernando Magistrates’ Courts and the Tobago and Frederick Street Prisons and the Arouca Remand Yard. The Tobago pilot goes live next month and is expected to facilitate remote visitation as well as remands. Video conferencing is expected to have major impact on transportation and security costs and risks, as well as saving transit time and relieving crowded magistrates’ court lists;

The promised recruitment, orientation and training of Customer Service Representatives has been completed;

Electronic screening and surveillance systems have been installed at the Scarborough High and Magistrates’ Courts and at Point Fortin;

Cabinet has also approved the acquisition of the St Joseph’s Convent building for customisation to deliver Family Court services in San Fernando;

There are now no more matters to be assigned from the Civil “Old Rules” backlog.

1 Open courts (access to records)

2 Public fact-finding (justices)

3 Transparent proceedings (transcripts)

4 Automatic review by the appellate process

5 Reasons for decisions – public pronouncements & written opinions.

6 Submission to Finance and Audit Laws (Accountable to the Law)

7 Public Accounts Committee (Accountability to Parliament)

8 Annual Report (Accountable to the Public)

9 Adversarial fora

10 Media scrutiny

11 Independent Constitutional Commissions