A.G. says he will get advice on Bar Resolution

In legal news, Attorney General Wilfred Elrington on Wednesday confirmed to News Five that he has received a resolution approved by the Bar Association in a special session. Elrington says he will think about the document very carefully and will seek legal advice before responding to the Association as he is not certain to what extent his office has authority over judges since the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary are separate and distinct arms. Elrington admits it is a “novel situation, breaking new grounds” and adds that the proper course of action probably would have been for the resolution to be made to the National Assembly. News Five tried to get comments from Bar Association President Jackie Marshalleck, but was told she is out of the country. No one else would speak to us on camera, saying that they are giving the Attorney General an opportunity to act before any public statements are made.

Viewers will recall that last week, the Bar Association held a meeting to consider a resolution to call upon the Attorney General, the Chief Justice, and all Judges of the Supreme Court to deliver reserved judgments in a specific time frame. The resolution proposed that decisions pending for more than three years be delivered before the thirtieth November; judgments reserved for more than one year but less than three years be handed down on or before December thirty-first, while all other judgments now reserved be delivered on or before March thirty-first, 2009. The resolution goes further to call upon any judge who fails to deliver reserved judgments to resign from office or face the prospect of removal from office for misbehavior. Speaking to an attorney today, we were told that there are approximately fifty cases, going back as far as fourteen years ago in which judgments have not been given.

A document secured by News Five of the compilation of reserved decisions show that Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh has at least eight judgments pending, going back to three and a half years; Justice Gonzalez has seven cases, with his longest outstanding judgment being fourteen years old; Justice Awich racked up eleven, the oldest judgment of which is four years old; Justice Arana has a similar number, some with reserved decisions of up to a year and a half; Justice Muria has seven outstanding judgments, the longest being a year and three months, while Justice Lucas has only one at three years old. Apparently, the rule-of-thumb is that a judgment should not be reserved for more than three months. As leader of the Bar, the A.G. is therefore being call upon to approach the Chief Justice and call him to task. While it may seem harsh, the attorney whom News Five spoke to maintains that it only seems that way if you are looking at it from the point of the of the judges instead of the litigant and as attorneys, they’ve got to safeguard the rights of their clients. In the words of William Gladstone, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”