People wait outside the Spanish Town RM Court on November 15, 2005, as new security rules took effect. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

The breakdown in trial lists at the island's courts is sometimes blamed on the inability of the police to find enough citizens who are willing to do their civic duty by serving as jurors.

But many jurors regard it as a waste of time to attend court when, all too often on the first day of their three-week service, they are forced to sit around from before 10:00 a.m. to midday, only to be told that cases on the court list which were set for trial could not proceed, for various reasons.

Jurors attending court often hear that the Corporate Area's sole prisoner truck, which is used to transport accused persons who are in custody, is late because it had broken down earlier that morning. The trials, therefore, get off to a late start.

Blame lawyers

Some defence lawyers are to blame for trial delays too, because it is not unusual to hear them asking for adjournments despite the fact that they had previously given firm trial dates for their cases. There are times, too, when some lawyers have more than one case scheduled for trial in the courts and therefore they have to seek adjournment in one if both are ready to start.

And those are not the only problems contributing to delays at the courts. When prisoners are taken to court, it takes a long time for the police to process them to be routed to the particular courtroom and to search them for such contraband as ganja which they take with them from prison or wherever they were remanded in custody. The police manning the courts have often complained that they are short-staffed. It is not unusual to see a sole policeman or policewoman escorting two or three prisoners to and from courtrooms scattered all over the Supreme Court building.

The police complain that jurors are being selected from the outdated voters' list of 2002. They say that often, when they go to the addresses on the voters' list, they are told that the persons listed no longer live there. The police made a special plea last year for the jury list to be compiled instead from the taxation registry which provides Tax Registration Numbers.

Refreshments

Jurors who serve in the Home Circuit Court (Kingston), are offered refreshments from 11.30 a.m. to 11.45 a.m. when they are sitting on a case, but that facility is not afforded jurors serving in parishes outside of Kingston. A lawyer suggested that every effort should be made to give all jurors refreshments because many of them in rural areas could not afford lunch daily when they are summoned to serve and that could be the reason that many shun jury service. Even a glass of water is hard to come by at times for jurors serving in rural parishes, and to make matters worse, often there are no proper toilet facilities for them to use.

Jurors in Kingston are briefed on the Friday before they are required to start jury duty as to what their functions are, but those outside of Kingston are not; so many do not have a clue as to what they are summoned to do.