Reconsider the JP Association – LMAJ
Published:Wednesday | May 26, 2021 | 12:10 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The St James chapter of the Lay Magistrate Association of Jamaica (LMAJ) is calling on Delroy Chuck, minister of justice, to reconsider his decision to create the Justice of the Peace Association, replacing the LMAJ as the sole body representing the country’s justices of the peace (JPs).
According to Egerton Forrester, president of the LMAJ, St James chapter, such a move on the part of the justice ministry is disrespectful to the members sworn as JPs and trained as lay magistrates.
He said the LMAJ, under the leadership of the custos of each parish, is responsible for the JPs.
“There is a move afoot at the moment to create a new Justice of the Peace Association (JPA), which will replace the Lay Magistrate Association as the body representing justices of the peace across the island,” Forrester said during a function where his association provides hot meals for people living on the streets of Montego Bay.
“We are very unhappy with this. It’s a source of demotivation and we strongly suggest to the minister and hope that he will reconsider this position, although it has been far advanced,” he insisted.
EXTREME CARE
He said extreme care must be taken when dealing with voluntary organisations to ensure their sustainability.
“When you are dealing with voluntary organisations, we can’t manage it the same way you manage a regular business; regular business practices don’t function in that way. In businesses, you are able to hire and fire at will,” said the St James LMAJ president.
“... As a lay magistrate association, a volunteer organisation, it requires a certain amount of management skills to handle volunteers, and I am afraid this is very lacking in the way we have been treated in the matter of the creation of a new Justice of the Peace Association,” he added.
In June of 2020, The Gleaner published a story indicating that JPs were unhappy with the contents of a letter from Chuck to the LMAJ, that there should be one association representing JPs in each parish led by their custodes, and that persons holding positions such as chairman and secretaries should be elected, and for a specific period.
The letter also stated that the following decisions were taken at the meeting with the custodes:
• There should be one association in each parish for all JPs, headed by the custos.
• The executive members of the association are to be elected. This would include traditional positions held, such as chairman, treasurer, secretary, etc. The elections should be for specific tenures.
• The association would, therefore, consist of the executive members and such other governing bodies as the association sees fit.
• All JPs should be members of the association. However, voting rights may only be applicable to members who have paid their membership dues.
Chuck stated that the decision taken had his full support, hence his instructions that the resolution should be adopted and practised in all parishes.
In St James and several other parishes, including Hanover, JPs are separated from their peers who have been trained as lay magistrates into two separate organisations – a chapter of the LMAJ, and a parish organisation of justices of the peace, both claiming to be representative of JPs in their respective parishes.