Well, that didn’t take very long, did it?
Barbados Bar Association President Andrew Pilgrim (photo above) hasn’t received a response to a letter he wrote to the Chief Justice back in July. After ten weeks of waiting for CJ Gibson to say something about the Bar Association’s concerns about the administration of justice in Barbados, Mr. Pilgrim is suggesting to his fellow lawyers that they stage a strike at the Supreme Court building. Although just about anyone who has hired a Bajan lawyer might laugh at the obvious joke (Bajan lawyers strike? What difference will it make? Will anyone notice?), the fact that the Bar Association is considering a strike shows the seriousness of the situation – at least as far as the Bar membership is concerned.
To be fair, Marston Gibson was parachuted into the position with lots of dreams about using various New York techniques for reducing the outrageous backlog in the courts – but aside from the dreams he was given no budget worth talking about. The system was broken long before Gibson arrived with civil court cases regularly taking 10, 15 and even 20 years to complete!
On the other hand Gibson could have kicked some life into the rules had he chosen to: but he is a weak and ineffective leader and manager. The time to make big changes is when the new leader first arrives. After the first year, it’s all over and the status quo wins. That’s Management 101, but I guess Marston Gibson never took that course.
And the next person to hold the position of Chief Justice will be?
Further Reading
You know the routine folks… we have to print the entire newspaper article here because the Nation is known for removing articles when the paper’s agenda changes. So please read the article at The Nation first…
FED UP with the lack of meaningful response from the Chief Justice to their concerns, the council of the Bar Association has written its members suggesting strike action at the Supreme Court Complex, among other things, as a means of getting their matters heard. Continue reading