The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

OFFICERS of the judiciary have been urged to use the criticism levelled at the third branch of government as motivation to continue carrying out their judicial duties with high standards.

Court of Appeal President Justice Anita Allen’s advice came at a special ceremony marking the appellate court’s Legal Year opening. This comes two weeks after outgoing Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett noted the unfairness in blaming the country’s crime woes solely on “flaws” in the legal system.

At the time, he urged critics to take stock of the facts over the granting of bail. Late last year, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson expressed hope that the judiciary “will do everything to prevent what appears to be judge shopping” over bail.

Also last year, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade expressed concern about bail, highlighting a case where bail was granted to a “prolific offender” nearly a month after another judge rejected his request.

Yesterday, Justice Allen echoed Sir Michael’s account of the challenges that judges endure and the honour in serving the Bahamian public to ensure the “dispensing of justice at the highest standards”.

“There is no gainsaying that a judge’s role of ensuring equal access to justice and securing the rights and freedoms of all of our people is vital to a democratic, healthy, thriving society,” Justice Allen emphasised, adding: “Few outside our families know the dedication, commitment and the mental and physical stamina it takes to fulfil that high calling.”

“The fulfilment of our judicial duties requires us day in and day out to devote ourselves to dispensing justice at the highest standards. It requires patience, open-mindedness, courtesy, tact, firmness, understanding, discipline, the ability to resist pressures which may threaten judicial independence, compassion and humility.

“I wish to encourage judicial officers not to let the strident or cacophonous voices around us to cause us to doubt the worthiness of our pursuit, or to diminish the triumph of our high achievements. But rather to use it to spur us on to continue to dispense justice in accordance with the highest judicial standards.”

Justice Allen reiterated her proposal for the stakeholders in the justice system “including the government, the commissioner of police, the legal profession and representatives of civil society to discuss and to find solutions for the important issues which face us.”

“I am confident that we can do so without endangering or compromising our impartiality or our independence,” she added.

She also suggested that giving interviews to the media can help the public understand and be properly informed about the judicial process.