The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN 18,000-square foot court complex to be used only for family cases could move ahead after a committee, re-appointed to research and make recommendations, presented a report to the Attorney General yesterday.

The next step is for Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson to present the report to the Cabinet for consideration, which she expects to do before the end of the year regardless of the budgetary constraints now faced by the country.

During yesterday’s presentation, Justice Ruby Nottage told the press that the re-appointed Family Courts System Committee identified three suitable locations on which house the complex, which is ultimately expected to help alleviate some of the stress on the Magistrates Court, deal with family matters in an expeditious manner, and create a relaxed environment for families attending court.

The envisioned court complex is planned to house a number of facilities, including three courtrooms for Magistrates, two courtrooms for Supreme Court judges, a registry for Family Court, and a section for resident officers of Social Services, among other things.

One of the three locations, which the committee reports as the most viable option for a family court, is the Town Centre Mall due to available parking, access to public transport, access to banks, internal and external security measures in the form of a nearby (Grove) Police Station.

“Madam Attorney General,” Justice Nottage said, “very kindly decided, with the support of the honourable Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett, to reappoint a committee that had been appointed in May of 2008 and a report had been tabled at that time conceptually envisioning a family court.”

“What has really moved it one step further to realization has been Madam Attorney General’s excellent foresight and belief in the leadership of this particular project and by saying to the committee, ‘I want you to report to us on a number of issues,’” the committee head said.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson instructed the committee to create a plan for the implementation of a family court, to make recommendations for possible locations of the court complex and recommendations for various agencies to be in the vicinity of the court. The report was to be handed in by the end of December.

At yesterday’s press conference, the committee suggested the Victoria Gardens, Nassau Street Complex, and Town Centre Mall as viable options for the family court’s location.

Of the three locations, the Town Centre Mall was recommended as the best for what the family court is envisioned to be, said Justice Nottage.

“We have discovered that the re-invention of the top floor of that mall can create an excellent arena for a family court. In it, we find that we can sit not only judges of the Supreme Court who will be assigned to that court, we find that we can also sit, comfortably, the Magistrates Court for Magistrates.”

She emphasized that both courts needed to be together for smooth and expeditious transitions of matters and applications between the courts.

Attorney General Maynard-Gibson said that the implementation of a family court was something to be taken “very seriously.”

“I would like the public to recognize that we take this very seriously,” the attorney general said before praising the FCS Committee for the work and effort they put into the report.

“You just heard the presentation of Justice Nottage and it is a very big vision. It is a fundamental change, a foundational change and transformative of not only the way we look at things, but it will change our society for the better.”

The Attorney General noted that a family court would be perfect to bring in the 40th Independence of the Bahamas as the family is the foundation of Bahamian society.

Responding on behalf of the Social Services, Minister Melanie Griffin said the a family court “is certainly a very welcome and timely institution and intervention into the social landscape of our country.”

“It is something that Social Services and the department have been looking forward to for a very long time and for far too long, issues of the family have been dealt with in a disjointed manner. This focus on bringing family together in a multidisciplinary approach is, I think, what is needed as we move forward in dealing with the social issues that beset our country.”

It was also revealed in the presentation that, based on statistics, more than 3,000 family cases were heard in the Magistrates Court for 2012, not including the criminal matters that Chief Magistrates Roger Gomez and others presided over this year.

The chief magistrate said that the establishment of a family court would be a much needed and welcome change for the judicial system and is something “we really can’t afford to put off any longer.”

“One of the things we want you to understand about the family court is that we’re trying to speed up the justice in the family courts.”

Mr Gomez noted that murder cases, when transferred from the Magistrates Court to the Supreme Court, usually take a year or more before they start.

“We want cases to be dealt within a matter of months in the family court. If a wife is being battered, we can’t let her come back in three months,” he said.

He said the implementation of a family court is driven by motivation to protect a nation’s youth, while noting that in considering the cost of a complex, “we can’t put a price on the value of children.”

No estimates have been given as to the cost of this proposed project as the FCS Committee’s report has not yet reached cabinet for consideration.

Also on that committee aside from Justice Nottage and Chief Magistrate Gomez are Bahamas Bar Association president Ruth Bowe-Darville, Deputy Registrar of Supreme Court Marilyn Meyers, Supreme Court Listing Officer Grace Bostwick, Court Administrator Dolly King and Fern Bowleg of the Council, Law Reform and Revision Division Commission.