The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A COMMITMENT to ensuring cases are heard more swiftly would be a good New Year’s resolution for the judiciary, Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Mr Gomez said the Magistrate’s Court intends to use the accusations of long waits and delayed justice levelled in 2012, as motivation over the next year.

“We’ve been getting a lot of criticism. I think in 2013 we’ll try our best to make sure cases are heard expeditiously and make people feel like their receiving justice, because a lot of people complain that they have to wait too long,” he said.

“But we want to let people know that the courts are there to try and solve the problems and we’re at their beck and call whenever they need us.”

The chief magistrate admitted that 2012 was not the easiest year, the Magistrates Court moving from Bank Lane to Nassau Street on Janaury 9.

But, he said, the new facility is “a big improvement and I think we’re on the way to really getting things much smoother for 2013 in terms of the operations of the court”.

“We had our difficult situations from time to time, for example, we’ve been having problems with the telephones and the air condition.

“We had some growing pains but on the whole, its been a tremendous improvement of where we were a year ago,” Mr Gomez said.