Justice Roy Jones inspecting the guard of honour at the opening of the St. Elizabeth Circuit Court on March 5, 2007. -Photo by Analee Bernard

The plan to increase the retirement age of government legal officers from 60 to 65 is not likely to benefit the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) any time soon as the trend is that no one joining the department plans to remain there until retirement age. In light of this, what seems to be needed are attractive long-term and meaningful plans to recruit lawyers from the private bar as prosecutors.

It is felt in some quarters that the powers that be don't regard resident magistrates as judges in the way their colleagues on the High Court bench are considered, and so are treated with scant regard in terms of salaries, and the provision of transportation and housing.

"But the bottom line is that resident magistrates are indeed judges and they need to be moved from the civil service portfolio to that of the judiciary," a resident magistrate said last week.

But, as a senior RM pointed out, "If you don't have sufficient experienced clerks of court and RMs to do the work, then you must have delays."