The Bar Association of Belize is usually content to go about its business without
creating too much friction or public fusses, but recently a new energized bar
has been very publicly engaged. And tonight, the association is taking it one
step further; it is getting in the face of the Attorney General and the Supreme
Court bench.
The issue is 30 judgements that are pending with Supreme Court Judges, some
of them going back more than ten years. And as they say, justice delayed...is
justice denied so The Bar last night voted on a resolution to demand that the
Attorney General basically force the judges to produce the judgements pronto
or either resign or be removed from the bench.
The proposed resolution which went to last night’s meeting for approval
says, quote: “the Bar Association requests the Honourable Attorney
General to call upon any Judge who fails to deliver any reserved judgment...to
resign from office or face the prospect of removal from office for misbehaviour....”
And in its proposed resolution, the Bar even set a timeline: judgments
pending for more than 3 years must be delivered on or before the 30th November,
2008; while those that have been delayed between one and three years must be
delivered on or before 31st December, 2008.
Again those are the terms of the proposed resolution, but still, you heard
it right! Lawyers telling judges to perform to time or be damned, now that’s
big people talking! From what we’ve been told a resolution was passed
– but it is a modified version of that one and while we have not been
able to get our hands on version two, we’d hazard to guess that the language
or terms have been somewhat toned down.
Whatever it is, the complaint remains the same and the clamour is likely only
to increase when reports that the Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh will be taking
up a temporary posting on an Appeals Board in another Caribbean territory despite
the backlog of cases. That part-time engagement, as we understand it, was approved
by the Prime Minister.
President of the Bar Jacqueline Marshalleck today declined comment on either
the original or modified resolution but said she will speak on it once it has
gone through the proper channels.
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