CJ Slams TT Media at Law Term Opening

CHIEF Justice Ivor Archie used his address at the opening of the new Law Term to slam the media for depending on “hardly reliable” and “uninformed” sources in reporting.

He was speaking at the Convocational Hall of the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain on Monday.

Archie said, “At the risk of crit­i­cism, of be­ing ac­cused of ar­ro­gance, I have to say I am too busy do­ing the peo­ple’s work.”

Saying, “Please don’t waste any of our time,” he slammed the media for requests for responses from him for something that was impertinent or inaccurate.

Archie has been under scrutiny by the media after allegations surfaced that he tried to convince judges to change their official state security to a company in which his friend Dillian Johnson was an employee.

There were also claims that he used his position to request state housing for certain individuals.

The Law As­so­ci­a­tion had launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the claims and recommended to the Prime Min­is­ter that he trig­ger Sec­tion 137 of the Con­sti­tu­tion and ap­point a tri­bunal to ex­plore pos­si­ble im­peach­ment of the Chief Jus­tice.

The Prime Min­is­ter sought his own legal advice and said there was not enough evidence for him to invoke Section 137.

In his address, Chief Justice also made mention of the resistance of Justice Carol Gobin to be assigned to the Family Court in Tobago.

He said, “I have been dis­mayed at the per­cep­tion in some quar­ters that the as­sign­ment of judges to the Fam­i­ly Court im­plies a de­mo­tion or loss of se­nior­i­ty.”

“On­ly a spe­cial type of judge goes there,” Archie said.