Consultations to End Virtual Court Hearings Coming

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Caption: From left, Resident Representative UNDP Ugo Blanco; Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh; Minister of Justice Devesh Maharaj; acting Permanent Secretary Office of the Attorney General Indira Rampaul-Chadee; President of LATT Lynette Seebaran-Suite; acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defence and AG Trudy Lewis; acting Deputy Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice Fran Chaitoo-Jacob. AZP News/Prior Beharry

By Prior Beharry

MINISTER of Justice Devesh Maharaj says there will be public consultations on virtual court hearings in Trinidad and Tobago’s court system.

Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh said that all trials should be heard in-person with virtual hearings only for case management cases.

They were speaking at the Second Meeting of the Working Group on Virtual Hearings in the Court System at the Multi-purpose Hall of Customs and Excise, Ajax Street in Port of Spain on Wednesday.

Maharaj said he was mandated by the Cabinet last year to have consultations after “virtual hearings within police stations have raised a number of ancillary issues in addition to simply the resumption of in-person hearings.”

He said dates and times for the consultations will be announced.

Maharaj said after the first meeting a number of issues were raised including:

Virtual hearings at police stations hamper the operations of officers;
The virtual access centres (VACs) at St Vincent and Duke Streets poses security challenges for police officers;
Accused are denied opportunity to consult with defence attorneys immediately before hearings;
No public access to court hearings;
Justice is denied to persons who don’t have access to VACs; and
Attorneys in training are denied opportunities from learning from seasoned lawyers

Boodoosingh said he was working towards opening the Supreme Courts in San Fernando and will put VACs across the country including in rural areas for greater access.

He said it was a time-saving measure to have case-management cases virtually, stressing that “trials should generally be held in a building.”

Boodoosingh said there was a social dimension of accused going physically to court where family members could see them and give them food.

Head of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority Renuka Ramghajan said they system should always be a hybrid one.

Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge said that speed in the justice system should not come at the expense of victims of crime.

He recalled as a defence attorney a number of cases were thrown out because of non-compliance of police officers.

Sturge said, “As a human being, privately, you always reflect on the fact that whilst the criminal justice system appears to be addressing the backlog and moving faster than before, there are human beings who were denied justice.

“Now, I never said that publicly, as a defence attorney, because I couldn’t, but the reality is that sometimes, in the quiet of night, you reflect on having read victim statements and that someone was denied justice.

“So, in our haste to deal with the backlog and to be speedier, I would ask that we not lose sight of the fact that people are being denied justice.”

Boodoosingh said he wanted to deal with the backlog of cases in the Judiciary and said it was unacceptable that people who challenged their fix-penalty tickets got cases in 2030.

The meeting had representatives from: