Justices of the peace welcome training as lay magistrates

JUSTICE OF the Peace (JP) for Kingston Lt Col (Ret’d) Euken Mills believes that specialised training, which he and colleague JPs have received to serve as lay magistrates, will greatly enable them to assist in reducing the backlog of cases in the courts.

He is one of 40 JPs from Kingston and St Andrew who have been trained in the justice ministry’s ongoing effort, through the Justice Training Institute, to boost the capacity of the lay magistrates’ courts by, among other things, strengthening the JPs’ capabilities to improve service delivery in their communities.

The training programme for the Corporate Area JPs, administered in May, was facilitated by retired High Court Judge Justice Marva McIntosh. A graduation ceremony was held for the participants at the Medallion Hall Hotel in St Andrew last week.

“We are given a mandate that we need to focus on reducing the backlog. The knowledge gained will obviously help us in that regard,” Mills said.

WIDE-RANGING TOPICS

That knowledge was gained through the wideranging topics covered during the training. These included judicial conduct, ethics, court procedures and rules, the trial process, evidence, the rules of admissibility, and sentencing.

Other subject areas focused on how to conduct one’s self while on the bench, taking guidance from persons who are better trained and are experts in specific areas, and how to administer justice impartially.

Mills, who averaged the highest mark – 93.5 per cent – at the end of the training, described Justice McIntosh as an “excellent facilitator”, noting that her seamless delivery of the subject areas would ensure that everything learnt would “remain indelibly etched in our minds”.

St Andrew JP Daniel Dawes, who received the second highest mark – 93 per cent – said that the training would not only assist in reducing the backlog, but also enable the JPs to deliver “unbiased justice to Jamaicans”.

Dawes also supports the recent call by Justice Minister Delroy Chuck for JPs operating contrary to established guidelines and rules to be investigated in order to safeguard the vocation’s integrity.