“Perhaps most damning is the account from the dismissed acting registrar of the Court, Jamaican Dr Leighton Jackson, who was escorted out of the Court’s Headquarters in May.”
Ask anyone on the B’town streets and you’ll find that few Bajans realise that the vaunted Caribbean Court of Justice carries no actual power or authority even in Barbados – one of the few countries to sign on with the CCJ. Compliance with Caribbean Court of Justice decisions, you see, is still voluntary.
That’s not what has the CCJ in chaos though – it’s a series of recent incidents that some say threatens the court’s continuance.
News 7 in Belize put forth an excellent summary, but the news articles just keep coming including corrupt conduct by a Justice…
Check out the following:
Trinidad Express: CCJ faces internal battle
Stabroek News: CCJ judge gets $$ to hire driver
Stabroek News: CCJ problems sadden former Chief Justice
Jamaica Gleaner: Former CCJ Employee Says Jamaica should be cautious with Court
Administrative Disquiet at CCJ
The Caribbean Court of Justice is the highest Court in Belize, Barbados and Guyana but right now the court is under pressure at its headquarters in Trinidad. News reports from Port of Spain say that the court is facing internal legal battles resulting from a series of dismissals, resignations and suspensions of senior managers. The Court says it is restructuring after 10 years, but half of the 72 employees have joined a union to lodge grievances against the court – mainly about a change in the salary payment system.
On top of that, the court’s senior managers have hired an attorney who is preparing to file suit against the court according to the Trinidad Sunday Express.
Perhaps most damning is the account from the dismissed acting registrar of the Court, Jamaican Dr Leighton Jackson, who was escorted out of the Court’s Headquarters in May.
He told the Jamaica Gleaner, quote, “Based on the incidents of mismanagement, arbitrariness and judicial misconduct, I think the current structure of the court is incomplete and insufficient” end quote.
His predecessor Paula Pierre had resigned at the end of 2013 citing what she called a toxic atmosphere to work in. Jackson is also contemplating legal action against the CCJ.
And to add to the mounting embarrassment, one of the judges Jacob Wit was accused of firing his driver because the driver didn’t want to scalp two complimentary tickets the judge had received to a Carnival event. The Judge later told the Trinidadian media that he did ask his former driver to sell tickets for a Carnival show, but they were tickets his wife bought and not the complimentary ones given to him by the National Carnival Commission. The judge added that there was no relation whatsoever between the incident and the driver being released.
Barbados Free Press 
LAWYERS
Who was the self aggrandizing idiot who spearheaded multi millions of taxpayer dollars into a court that only represents three countries and with no real powers?
Unlike the alchemists of old, this judge converted taxpayer silver into shit.
No doubt he is collecting an inflated pension and being consulted by even bigger morons who are unaccountable as well.
Can you imagine 72 employees!
Don’t just blame the person/person who set up the court. One of the reasons for this court is that the English supreme court do not want to deal with our issues in the Caribbean & third world countries, & I agree with them, it becomes too expensive. What we want in the Caribbean is a few GOOD MEN or WOMEN!!!, where do we find them? It behoves us that we have let our countries moves away from the basic elements of our fore parents- God, country, & hard work, we want everything for nothing, so now we are getting what we deserve. So don’t blame the politicians, they are only products of our society, & we put them there.
Let’s not get carried away by all the Hearsay and Controversy that surrounds the Caribbean Court of Justice ( CCJ). The case of the Jamaican national that was held against the Barbados Immigration Service and Government ought to have been vigorously Appealed.
Do you know or have any idea how many Jamaicans are turned away from British Ports per year searched or otherwise?
However, as a Member of the Court and all that it stands for, Barbados had to go along with the decision. My immediate mental apprehension to the CCJ was that they had loss sight of establishing Rules and Procedures in the context of how to regulate legal compliance with Statutory interpretation of the law. All I can offer at this time is to say that The Privy Council must be rubbing it’s hands in Glee, triumphant delight at the folly of these judicial upstarts. The Caribbean delusion of wanting to be independent when they are not..
Are we a Caribbean people or a bunch of mini-states? That’s really the question which underscores this debate.
Some of the judges – the ones I know – are first rate. The Myrie decision has nothing to do with the issues raised here and the attempt to make capital from it is misplaced.
Of Jackson, we only have one side – and not especially coherently expressed – of a story. Barnett is not especially coherent either. So – before we judge – hear the other side. But there is clearly a case to answer though who, how and when God only knows..
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What a bunch of cnut…a Court without jurisdictional authority to enforce its decisions. Sheeple treatment.
Crook lawyers and Judges looking for ways not to lock up friends and family and the nasty underworld of business men in their fraud line pockets, zig zagging around the laws to suit the pimp title holders and others lawless men and women , They see to think the court is a get out of jail free and the DPP needs to be replace and the newspapers need to report to the public if they looking to make money selling papers;
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You all may want to consider the response of the Court to the controversy as well http://www.caribbeancourtofjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Press-Release-July-25-2014.pdf