By Anrite, Extern, Defence for Children
Upon helping Rebecca King – a
Canadian Law Student on her research, though being with her for a very short
time, I was privileged to be involved in an interview with a registrar of the
High Court who has been there for twenty eight years. In his interview, he gave a justification for
the slow progress of the law with regards to victims' cases.
He said that when the case is
committed, it has to be processed before it is called upon in the High
Court. It goes through the Law Officers’
Department for scrutiny to validate and set a date. There are usually tons of cases already
awaiting trial. The judges have to take
written report of proceedings. Sometimes
also, the surety for the accused person gives wrong address upon securing
bail. Even the accused gives wrong
address at times thereby making tracing a problem. The victims may appear but there is no lawyer
to prosecute the matter. With no legal
advise, they may tend to make wrong pleadings.
The victim may be absent, the witnesses may be absent and sometimes even
the police officer who should serve as witness are absent. In such situations, the court will order a
subpoena but this is no good if the accused or the victim cannot be
reached. Furthermore, judges are not
around all the time as they may be in conferences, vacations, on medical and
few absences are as a result of personal reasons. In addition, the court operates like a school
of some sort in the sense that the court goes on vacation at different times of
the year. During this period, no court
employee will be actively on duty and the judges are no exception. He added that if all the parties – victims,
accused, police officers and lawyers are present, the case will be dealt with
in a timely manner.
But is this ever the
case? And is the system improving or
otherwise? These I believe are questions
that are deeply rooted in our justice
system?
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