Chief Justice Says Elimination of Backlog is a Priority

Kenneth Benjamin

The Chief Justice says that one project that has had success in the Court of Appeal involves backlog elimination. The initiative is still in progress and involves case management methods and the streamlining of the appeal process.

Kenneth Benjamin, Chief Justice of Belize

“We hope that the next project initiative would be the development and implementation of strategies and policies would be to address the huge backlog of appeals from the magistrate’s court to the supreme court. But I may be speaking out of term because this gathering may stir up an imperative that may overshadow what I expect to be the next project. The object of this 2 day workshop is to secure your input on a broad based approach. I see here a spectrum of stakeholders and you are to guide the project in Belize and certainly in the region at large because we will be rolling out everything that is applicable to other jurisdictions both in the short-term, medium-term and the long-term basis.”

Nigel Hawke

Nigel Hawke, Deputy Solicitor General of Belize

“We welcome this project as an initiative for judicial reform which we know is critical to be functioning of a very important arm of our democracy which is the judicial system. Ladies and gentlemen as we said I think having regard to the project we are starting and to be involved at a certain extent in some of the aspects of the court of appeal in case management conferences. Certainly we know the project is critical to the functioning of our judiciary, certainly we know areas in relation to access to justice is critical and important for all of us and also implementation of technology and mediation into our judicial system.”