Chief Magistrate Says No Records Were Damaged When the Ceiling Collapsed

The collapsed ceiling of the Magistrates’ Court building put a damper on the progress of the court’s operations with current cases, but it did not result in any losses of manual records that are still being used. But going forward, Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser said that there was already a plan in place to go virtual and digital, altogether. In addition, today representatives of the European Union conducted an assessment of the damages at the court and Fraser says this is a sign that there are steps being taken behind the scenes to get the building repaired.

Sharon Fraser

Sharon Fraser, Chief Magistrate

“If it is that I’m saying to you that the E.U is scheduled to come and do the assessment it definitely means somebody is reaching out. The last thing I would have wanted is for something else to happen to this building. This building is long-standing, it has its historical value, persons can talk about history as far as this building is concerned. But I think that now, and especially because of the fact that the Chief Justice came – she walked in and she was like I can’t have anybody in this building so they know the urgency of addressing the issue facing us at this time. So I don’t feel at any point that we’re being ignored, that we’re not being looked at and nobody is not understanding the seriousness of this matter. Thankfully, our records room has not suffered any water damage. But the situation was that even before Hurricane Lisa, we were looking at a way of how to go virtual, in terms of even for filing – digital. The Supreme Court was in fact was forced with COVID. We were forced a little, but not pushed all the way in terms of virtual hearings, and virtual filings, we’re not there yet. We’re hoping that in fact, with a new case management system that we have we can in fact go into digital receipting countrywide. It’s just putting the technology, in terms of the equipment in place and then we can very well do that, so we’re going step by step and then we can go into e-filing and all the other things, people being able to pay their fines virtually, that kind of thing, so we’re hopeful.”