Five Judges to Step Down from Supreme Court Bench in 2020
The 2020 legal calendar gets underway on January thirteenth and the Attorney General’s ministry is already looking at possibly replacing as many as five judges, including Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, in the months ahead. That’s because, with the exception of Justice Shona Griffith, they will all be reaching retirement age this year. As we reported last week, Griffith is stepping down to take up an appointment with the Supreme Court in Barbados, while CJ Benjamin and Justice Courtney Abel will be turning sixty-five in March. It means that the executive will be actively seeking their replacements and the pool from which the selections will be drawn covers the entire Caribbean region. According to Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte, an initial meeting was held with the Chief Justice on Monday after which the Prime Minister will also be meeting with him to chart the way forward. The process, he says, is rather sensitive since all three arms of government function autonomously.
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
“Very soon it will be five. Later on, I think it’s this year or early next year we have two more justices who will reach the age of sixty-five and we will have to know at that point what we intend to do with those judges. I had a preliminary meeting with the Chief Justice yesterday and he has informed me that notices have been sent out throughout the Caribbean and locally as well, and more will be done locally to try to seek judges to have an interest in coming to this jurisdiction to practice. We know for sure that Justice Griffith will leave by the middle of this month to take up a seat in Barbados. We know that justices Abel and the Chief Justice himself, they both reach retirement age in March. Yesterday was just a preliminary meeting to map out the challenges that we have and very soon there will be a meeting between the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister and possibly myself again, to discuss where we go forward from here. There’s always the option of possibly extending, even if for a short time, those justices who are retiring immediately and with that it would be simpler, but then these judges would have to want to stay. We would have to go through a process and seek consultation as to whether or not there would be consensus for them staying. It’s a process and it’s delicate. The executive has to be a part of this selection process and dealing with this matter, while at the same time not even appearing to be interfering in the judiciary. So we’re walking a very, very delicate line and I would be uncomfortable saying more than what I have just said, other than to say that there will be a meeting very urgently between the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister because there are other issues as well.”