File photos
From left, Lightbourne and Gomes.

Howard Campbell, Sunday Gleaner Writer

THE GOVERNMENT is taking steps to restructure the problem-plagued coroner's court, according to Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne.

Lightbourne, who is also Jamaica's attorney general, told a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum that justice ministry officials have visited several parishes and identified locations they hope will function solely as coroner's courts.

Currently, coroner's cases are tried in Resident Magistrate's courts, which legal authorities say has contributed to a backlog of hearings.

"The due judicial complexes that are being planned in the Justice Reform programme will have designated coroner's courts," Lightbourne said. "At the moment, we are trying to reduce the backlog by looking at reopening some of the closed outstations and using them as coroner's courts," she added.

Lightbourne said buildings in Malvern, St Elizabeth; Claremont, St Ann and Cambridge, St James, have been earmarked as possible sites for coroner's courts. She said the buildings in Claremont and Cambridge are being refurbished.

Dr Carolyn Gomes, executive director of human rights group, Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ), who also attended the forum, said there has been little, if any, improvement of systems in the coroner's court.

"Nothing has changed, they (coroners) still don't have their own bailiffs and they still don't send out their summonses," Gomes said. "We hear that there is money for a proper morgue, but right now people are getting inadequate post-mortems and inadequate results," she added.

Main recommendation

Significant adjustments for a more efficient coroner's court is one of the main recommendations of the 10-year justice reform programme outlined last year by the previous People's National Party government.

In 2007, then Justice Minister and Attorney General A.J. Nicholson blamed the no-show of witnesses and jurors for the pile-up in mainly non-criminal cases. At the time, Nicholson said there were more than 3,500 unresolved cases before the courts.

The coroner's inquest last October, into the death of former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, again placed Jamaica's coroner's system under the microscope. The six-week inquest at the Jamaica Conference Centre reportedly cost J$1 million a week, sparking criticism from lawyers and the JFJ.