Marston Gibson became Chief Justice of Barbados under some very questionable circumstances but, nonetheless, he is Chief Justice and it would appear that there is lots of goodwill out there for him to succeed in bringing some order to the chaotic judicial system. It would appear that he is seeking to jettison that goodwill before he gets started. Rather than get on with the job, he is all over the place making speeches more like he is seeking celebrity or going after the popular vote. From where I stand I see him as long on talk but short on action. In my opinion all these speeches might appeal to those that are easily impressed but they are making him look less and less as chief justice material.
In one of these speeches he addressed the issue of praedial larceny suggesting or declaring that the sentences for that offence were too light, and I think that rightly so all Barbadians, except the thieves themselves, would agree. However, as Chief Justice, I don’t think that it is his place to be making such declarations. My question now would be: what would happen if the Director of Public Prosecutions were to appeal one of those light sentences? To my mind the Chief Justice could not be part of the panel to hear the appeal since he has already indicated how he would decide matter. That would give the crook an arguable ground for appeal if his sentence were to be increased. I believe that in those circumstances, to appear fair the CJ would have to recuse himself from any such appeal.
I have little confidence that much will change under his leadership as I believe that he has already been infected by the system. On September 19, 2011, I wrote to the Chief Justice, in my capacity as General Secretary of Unity Workers Union, on behalf of one of my members, complaining that a judge had refuse and or neglected to certify a draft order that was corrected to the judge’s specifications and resubmitted on April 15, 2011. All the judge had to do at that point was to affix a signature: such an onerous task had already taken the judge five months.
While I am grateful that within one day of submitting the letter the Chief Justice took action to resolve the matter. However, I am disappointed that he would write to Unity Workers Union to absolve the judge for such tardiness. He wrote in bold print,
“Draft Orders are NOT certified by judges but by the Registrar or members of her staff, usually the clerk.”
I would be charitable to him and say that he did not deliberately intend to mislead UNITY. I believe that he reported what he was told since he has no experience working around the Barbados court system. I can assure the CJ that at one stage during my varied career I was the court clerk for the Solicitor General’s chambers and I spent many hours outside judge’s chambers waiting for a judge to certify draft orders. Whatever is the desirable situation in the courts, I can assure the CJ that judges do certify draft orders.
Mr. Chief Justice my advice is, watch your back.
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