No sitting of court tomorrow

By Leroy Smith

There will be no sitting of the Magistrates’ Court, Supreme Court or Land Court tomorrow Friday, January 20, 2017.

The cancellation is necessary to facilitate Judges, Magistrates’and interested Attorneys-at- Law at a two-day training programme aimed at speeding up the process of civil matters in the courts.

The training is a collaborative effort between the Supreme Court of Justice in Guyana and the Caribbean Court of Justice/Jurist Project.

A source within the workings of the judiciary explained that the training aims to school the judges and magistrates on what are the new rules and guidelines that they ought to follow when dealing with civil matters.

This comes on the heels of the ruling of the High Court regarding the “Civil Procedures Rule 2016.”

The source indicated that the Civil Procedures Rules 2016 dictates how civil trials are conducted from the beginning to the end, how those should be filed in the respective courts and the roles of the players involved.

When the Civil Procedures Rule of 2016 kicks in it is likely to result in a clear up in the backlog of cases, as the process introduces new techniques to achieve that objective.

As a follow up to the programme which starts tomorrow, Friday and ends on Saturday, there is expected to be separate training for Attorneys-at- Law and other staff of the courts and their registries.

Senior functionaries of the Caribbean Court of Justice will be in Guyana for the session.

Local court hearings will resume as per norm on Monday, January 23, 2017.