Appeal Court gets three more judges

The Court of Appeal is one step closer to reaching its goal of having 12 judges by 2020 after yesterday's swearing-in of Solicitor-General Nicole Foster-Pusey and Justices Jennifer Straw and Carol Edwards in a ceremony held at King's House in St Andrew.

Their appointments bring the number of Appeal Court judges to 10, which, according to the court's president, Justice C. Dennis Morrison, is partly due to the recent expansion of the Court of Appeal building in downtown Kingston.

"As also reported from this podium in mid-September, active steps were already under way in anticipation of the completion of the building to recruit three additional judges of appeal, and now this, too, has come to pass. It gives me very great pleasure to welcome to the Court of Appeal the three judges of appeal sworn in this morning (yesterday)," Morrison said.

Improvements in system

Also at the ceremony was Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, who used the opportunity to highlight improvements in the justice system.

Sykes told the audience that between December 2017 and June 2018, there had been an improvement in the average clearance rate of 46 per cent to 78 per cent. He said that there was improvement in the hearing certainty date over the same period, moving from 69 per cent to 72 per cent.

"We can safely say that we are on our way to becoming the best in the Caribbean in three years and one of the best in the world in six years, and why we have to single out the staff and the members of the public and the attorneys is that all of this has been achieved without additional resources," Sykes said.

"So I am just making the point that we can achieve greater efficiencies by utilising what we have in a better way."

Other appointments include Justice David Fraser as acting Court of Appeal judge and Lisa Palmer Hamilton, Andrea Thomas, and Judith Pusey as puisne judges.

Sheron Barnes is now an acting puisne judge, and Tania Mott Tulloch-Reid was appointed to act as master-in-chamber.