Judge quits Grand Court bench

| 07/10/2019 | 23 Comments
Cayman News Service, Justice Ingrid Mangatal
Justice Ingrid Mangatal

(CNS): Justice Ingrid Mangatal is to leave the Grand Court bench at the end of this month at the age of just 54, but officials have given no indication of the reason. Justice Mangatal was appointed as a full-time judge on 1 January 2015 after a recommendation by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. But less than five years later she is ‘demitting office’ on 31 October, the commission stated in a release Monday.

Justice Mangatal has mostly presided over the financial court since coming to Cayman but she has also conducted civil and criminal work. However, her work was overshadowed when she was arrested for DUI after a single-vehicle collision in September 2017. She later made admissions and in 2018 was convicted, fined and banned from driving for one year.

Nevertheless, she retained the support of Chief Justice Smellie, who said after her conviction that she would remain on the bench. CJ Smellie said that since her appointment she had presided over a large caseload, primarily complex and specialised financial services work.

Governor Martyn Roper said Cayman had been privileged to have a judge of her calibre. “Her work over the past five years has assisted with improving our jurisdictional reputation and legal precedence,” he said before wishing her well.

Ormond Williams, the chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, said she had impressed the JLSC at her interview would be “dearly missed”. He added that she had “served with competence and fairness using her breadth of knowledge of and experience in the law in both the criminal and civil courts”.

Justice Mangatal came to Cayman on 1 January 2015 from Jamaica, where she had been serving as an Acting Judge of Appeal in Jamaica since 2014. Before that she served as a puisne judge in Jamaica from 2003-2013, presiding in both criminal and civil courts. She presided over matters in Jamaica’s Commercial Division between 2011-2013, and served as a resident magistrate in Jamaica for just over a year.

There was no indication in the government release why Justice Mangatal was giving up the position, which she could have held until retirement.

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Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (23)

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  1. Neil Hamaty says:

    A brilliant legal mind who has always executed her office with fairness and distinction. I wish you the very best Ingrid and God Bless as you move forward.

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  2. Rick says:

    Very few people I have met has made such a deep impression on me as this lady. And a lady, she is! Brilliant and classy, but humble. Very hard traits to find in any one individual. I wish you the very best in all your endeavors, Madam. You are a star.

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  3. Concerned says:

    Glad to see the number of commenters who have congratulated the judge on her excellent contribution to our justice system. Unfortunately we always have a few racist whingers who will always take a pot shot at anyone originating from Jamaica. Shame on them!.

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    • Billy says:

      Nothing racist about alluding to Jamaican salaries. It is a fact that salaries in Jamaica are extremely low, as low as at one tenth in some cases. By the way, I thought that there are white, black, Chinese, Lebanese Jamaicans. You are the racist Sir since you seem to forget that!

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  4. Billy says:

    If you are a judge and you are convicted of a DUI it will always be part of your story. She may have been a good judge in general but I found her disingenuous in a case I had before her. She rejected a certain legal argument from me but accepted the same argument 10 months later in another case. Then I had to wait for nearly 3 years for a ruling which was supposed to be given in 2 to 3 months. I had to formally complain and she recused herself and I had to start again with another judge.

    Also, how likely is it that a Jamaican judge can leave a salary of CI 17, 000 per month voluntarily when she could have stayed another 16 years?

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  5. John Harris says:

    Justice Mangatal is a hard working, highly-respected and very effective Judge. Her departure is a blow to the jurisdiction, and she will be sorely missed by the profession and the Islands. I would like to wish her all the best in her future career,

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Having appeared as an attorney before Justice Mangatal on many occasions, I can say without reservation, that her grasp of complex facts and issues of law – and ultimately her in-depth written judgments – will be sorely missed. It may be no coincidence that she is the second female judge to leave these islands in recent times (Margaret Ramsay-Hale being the other).

    We do not have enough ‘resident’ Judges in the FSD at the moment and whoever is appointed in her place, has a hard act to follow. I wish her well and with her undoubtable talent, she will be a success in anything she chooses to do.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    1:13 how do you know it is voluntary? How can a judge dish out punishment for breaking the law when she is guilty of the same thing?

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Yes. It was necessary to state she has a DUI..

    She is a JUDGE!!!!

    How are you to enforce the law when you don’t even abide by it yourself?

    She could have killed people!

    Reporting the facts is nothing like CMR.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Come on back home. I remember a Caribbean colleague in Cayman being arrested for drinking many years ago, which really affected him.Yet I have never seen a white cocaine-using expat ever arrested for their daily cocaine use. Something is “off” about that place.

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  10. Rodney A. Barnett says:

    God Bless you and may your future endevours, what ever they are take you to only places of the highest personal esteem.

    Thank you for your service to our islands.

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    • Ps says:

      Welcome to the private sector where everything is big better and greener or at least the the money is. Get ready work your $ss off and have no quality of life. Yea private sector.

  11. Anonymous says:

    This is a loss for Cayman, She will be a credit to any jurisdiction that is fortunate enough to get her.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Go to Turks, they are more forgiving

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  13. Bertie : B says:

    All the best to you for your future endeavours Judge , if I may, you look great for being 54 , try modelling for your future .

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Given that this is voluntarily and not being fired, bringing up that DUI left a trashy ‘CMR’-like taste in my mouth. Was it necessary?

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  15. Anonymous says:

    I wish her well.

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