‘New chief, old speech’ as CJ pleads for new courthouse
(CNS): Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale made an impassioned public plea to politicians attending the formal opening of the Grand Court on Wednesday, as she noted that, despite a number of capital projects planned in this budget cycle, there was no money for a new court building. Making the most of the opportunity to speak directly to the senior members of parliament, she said the “new chief” was giving an “old speech”, as she outlined many of the challenges caused by the “unpleasant and unsuitable conditions” that everyone involved in the courts, from jurors to international visiting lawyers, have to work in.
Presiding over the ceremony for the second time as chief justice, Ramsay-Hale said that of all the things she has set out to achieve in the job, one of the most important was a new courthouse. “To the disappointment of the leaders of government who might’ve thought ‘new chief, new speech’, this is the part of the speech where I say we need a new courthouse,” she said, as she warned that she was about to give an old speech.
The chief justice said that the judiciary was grateful for the use of the new building, but it was not enough to meet the needs of the current workload and that retrofitting an old bank into a contemporary court was almost impossible. She pointed out that in addition to all of the courtrooms, chambers and jury rooms, the courts have an army of administrative support staff, from IT people to the human resource department, who must all be part of the court campus to preserve the independence of the judiciary.
She spoke about the inadequate facilities for witnesses and lawyers, as well as the small jury rooms, which are designed for a maximum of eight people, even though many trials in Cayman require twelve jurors. She said the jury boxes are also unsuitable for modern trials, and jury members must juggle two or three bundles of evidence on their laps as they sit through complex cases, from fraud to murder. However, she said it was impossible to retrofit the old court jury boxes.
On top of the structural difficulties of adapting the old bank, there are no suitable custody courts in the building. The original courthouse is the only place with two courts capable of properly dealing with defendants on remand.
Ramsay-Hale noted the “ambitious capital projects” planned for in the budget and lamented the fact that the list doesn’t include a new, modern courthouse. She pointed out that, as a premier financial jurisdiction that holds trials that may involve dozens of lawyers and their billion-dollar clients, the financial division of the Grand Court is hosting them in inadequate and “meagre conditions”.
“We need to have proper courts,” she said, adding that it was not just the financial court that should be technically abled but the criminal courts as well.
The chief justice pointed out that there was only so much that could be achieved in the old building, which was built in the 1970s, given its limitations. However, at this point, it remains the only court suitable for trying defendants charged with category A offences. Ramsay-Hale explained how the judiciary has to make do by using parts of the courthouse reserved for judges as robing rooms for lawyers.
While she stressed that all of the judges would do what needed to be done to do the job, she challenged the politicians to ask everyone else, especially the volunteer jurors and others, about working in the current “unpleasant and unsuitable conditions.”
“I make this public plea for consideration to be given to an establishment in the budget for a new courthouse,” she said. In the meantime, Judicial Administration would do what it could to retrofit the main courthouse, which is “an iconic building” that everyone wants to keep.
The chief justice welcomed the money allocated in the budget for an additional criminal court judge so that the courts do not have to rely on acting judges, as they have been doing, to keep cases moving. She pointed out that last year, there were 104 new indictments committed to the Grand Court. Despite the challenges, Justice Cheryll Richards and Justice Marlene Carter, as well as visiting judges, had managed to clear 119 cases after inroads were made in 2023 on the backlog. However, she said it was time to expand the capacity of the local bench.
See the chief justice’s address and the other speeches by the legal fraternity on CIGTV below:
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Category: Business, Court, Courts, Crime, Financial Services
Courts opening ceremonies are the only time we are offered the pleasure of hearing this new chief justice say anything. What does she do the rest of the year?
The ceremony, with its pompous speeches, its fancy dress and its third-world pageantry, is not traditional but is something introduced only about fifteen years ago by the then chief justice to give himself a platform to deliver his views on the world. Why everyone feels duty-bound to dress up and go along and endure it is beyond me. It is a waste of time. If the chief justice wants to do something useful, she should abandon it.
Someone has to first explain why money was spent on the old Scotiabank building if it is not fit for purpose.
Bullseye 🎯
The Glass house is there. Knock it down and build something there. Anywhere you build it, make sure there is parking. If you ever had to go there, it’s a disaster to park.
Unfortunately, whilst wishing for any new Court HQ to be built away from downtown GT has merit, its futile – it would be utterly inefficient for all staff/lawyers/etc to have to travel to Bodden Town or Red Bay.
Clearly the single best location is the site of the old Gov Bdg/Glass House. In between the RCIPS HQ and the LA. If anyone had any foresight, they’d commence building a 5-10 storey multi storey car park behind the CIG building. Once that is constructed, they knock the glass house and built modern purposeful 10 storey Court HQ with room for other unrelated CIG needs. It could also house a central Law Library; legal aid; etc.
This isnt rocket science, and needs to be done. then the current Law Courts and ‘Scotia Bdg’ could be flattened and either created into a public park/attraction for tourists OR perhaps a few 10 storey public/private partnership low cost 1/2 bed condo units for young Caymanians
I know this all makes too much sense. SO lets instead rent an old Cruise Ship, float it in the North Sound and use that as a a Court house…we could ask all the kayakers and paddleboarders to row all the defendants out each morning. The lawyers could attach themselves to drones and drop in.
Oh Cayman, where are any leaders with vision…where? Or at least with some testicular fortitude (male or female)
CNS, I thought (for years now) they already had the Scotiabank building to renovate for this purpose which I thought was a great idea except for the lack of parking. What happened to that?
CNS: It’s referenced in the article. See paragraph 3.
So sorry, I did miss that through clouds of rage at all the wasted money!
para 3 is BS though. I know both that building and the court building used to practically live in the latter doing court searches back in the day. The building is more than adequate for retrofit and ample room for admin and support staff. The problem is lack of vision and everyone wanting gold plated shiny new builds with their names on.
Cayman makes loose claims about DNA labs yet it’s own forensics still gonoverseas for many months awaiting results.
So rapists, killers and other criminals walk freely until then, or skip bail.
and intimidate witnesses and victims.
3rd World Class
If we built a new criminal and traffic court alongside HMP Northward, the present courthouse and Kirk House would provide ample space for the civil GC and C of A cases.
If Cayman wasn’t a crime riddled shit hole, we wouldn’t need all the new courts, and judiciary.
Crime ridden thanks to the mass importation of lawless needing Jamaicans.
Maybe back when Bodden Town was the Capitol. >80% of Grand Court Cause list and HM Northward residents are domestic home-grown multigenerational Caymanians. Especially the murderers.
Nope.
The statistics don’t back you up, bobo at 4:06. We Caymanians well good at crime too.
Typo……’Breeding’ Jamaicans
8:03 in the 1970s the one Magistrates Court closed by 11:30 many days because there were so few cases…speeding, the odd ganga guy, drunk etc. Then came development under Jim Bodden and his cronies and the rest is history.
The development brought in the uneducated unskilled Jamaicans who fathered then abandoned hundreds of unwanted babies that have since then continued the cycle.
Northward is now filled with the result and Cayman facing the consequences.
That’s when prisoners served their time in Jamaican prisons.
EVERYBODY in those days, Feared going to prison, as Jamaican prisons were hell.
Our current prison, and light sentences are no deterrent, and the planned new Disney World at Northward will only serve as an open invitation to every criminal, who will have nothing to fear, even if caught.
Perhaps if the courts required that expatriate offenders were deported on conclusion of sentence, and recommended the revocation of permits for offenses not warranting imprisonment, the problem, and demands on the judiciary, would be significantly curtailed.
Hear. Hear.
Excellent suggestion 3.48.
This speedy response would ,
1.. Send a message that if you break the law your immediate sentence will be deportation.
2.. It will reduce the need to house and pay for the upkeep of foreign offenders.
Deportation for offenses not warranting imprisonment could be a new level of punishment .
It is actually already the law. It is just that our authorities seem to ignore it.
authorities? who makes the sentences? who enforces the laws?
Given the majority of workers now have national orgin outside Cayman, this is most practical and fair solution, especially when yo consider that where most of workers are from have thousands who can replace those that have to deported or work permits revoked
If a guest in a restaurant , bar , cinema , airline or even in a private residence misbehaves, they are ejected.
That should also apply to Cayman when foreigners wether on Permits or vacations, abuse their positions as guests in another country.
That is the law of the Cayman Islands. For some incredible reason our authorities refuse to follow it. Why?
Because they go running to their MP who is dependent on the wotes of their extended family and baby mamas .
Bodden town, GTC, West Bay are examples of districts filled with lawless Jamcaymians.
Anchor marriages.
so very true, it will be by enforcing that a person’s sense of entitlement is not a human right. Caymanians too full of guilt to realise this FACT. Send an example to the lawyers who believe they have the power to make the laws by encouraging an appeal over every decision
If Cayman had a suitable mens jail facility with double or triple capacity, career recidivists wouldn’t be released into the community years before time served, and the dangerous wouldn’t qualify for bail on predictable relapse(s). All of this would take pressure off a slammed court schedule and free up police to really tackle the library of unenforced laws, removing many lifetime felons from free society. Build the jail to house all these thick case files.
You really hit the nail on the head. The prison issue is having major ripple effects
One would expect no crime in Paradise, as advertised.
If you don’t like this paradise then you know what to do…there are flights departing every day…
To be fair, they have a point. We advertise Cayman as safe and virtually crime-free but in truth, crime has been escalating over the last decade and is now getting out of hand to the point both court and prison can no longer cope with it.
need strict laws…not courts.
Laws are worthless without enforcement.
8:29, Tinted car windows, loud music into the night, litter and derelict vehicles dumped on roadsides, illegal building for cheap rental purposes all over the place, drunk driving, out of control dogs running loose etc etc zzzzz snore zzzzz,
This might be the stupidest reply I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. How do you expect swift and fair justice if the facilities are inadequate?
They’re likely talking about proper police enforcement to deter crime rather than the shambles we have now.
pot, kettle. police enforcement?
Even the judges want to spend more money. And for what? So they can hand out light/no sentences to serial criminals. No thanks.
Self-interest before anything else in the Cayman Islands – even in our courts!
Who needs new courthouses when anarchy is about to reign? Might as well as for a shrubbery.
Is that a Monty Python reference? 🙂
Nie!
If they ever do get to building a new court house I hope they’ll consider moving it out of the George Town. It’s so congested there & parking is dreadful.
The only sensible place would be Camana Bay.
Leave George Town to the cruise tourists.
The sensible place would be the eastern districts 3:57 as that’s where all the Jamaicans live plus it’s out of town.
And then you can pay all the lawyers to drive out there for thousands of wasted hours a year sitting in traffic. Genius.
12:47 it would be wonderful for the lawyers who came here with nothing but now live in Vista Del Mar, Yacht Club, Crystal Harbor Grand Harbor etc etc to drive “out there”, against the flow of traffic to get there actually, to see what ordinary residents in Cayman have to cope with.
They would send their articled juniors.
one small multi storey car park behind the library or in the gov car park behind immigration could fix that.
yawn….judiciary wanting more gold plated facilities….
any room in any building can be a court….ever hear of field courts??….
just do your job more and stop complaining.
you should be more concerned with the abysmal conviction rate of the incompetent dpp…
If you don’t know what you’re talking about it’s best to keep quiet.
And we tried having a competent DPP – you’re probably one of the people who called for his removal after he demonstrated his ‘racism’ by er … expecting his staff to do their damn job.
The staff turnover at the DPP’s office is the worst. No caymanian lawyers and no Caymanians in senior positions. It’s embarrassing that they employ the absolute scraps to prosecute serious criminals and protect the victims. The DPP is a shambles.
Pay peanuts…
Having been present at hearings where government has been represented by a local or especially, Jamaican “lawyer”, their representation has been at times , embarrassing, when compared to the performance of the private sector attorney.
What happened to the Scotiabank building?
https://caymannewsservice.com/2018/09/former-scotia-building-court/
That’s where I heard that Dart wants to build his 70 storey signature building.
How often do they delouse the wigs?
The wigs are the victims here.
I understand that the wig worn by Mac as speaker, had to undergo radiation before incineration.
If it was being built in the Brac, it would be in the budget
Government believe in justice? LOL
Yes but you made a typo. If you remove the space it’s injustice.