Chief justice urges judiciary to embrace digital agenda | World News
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CHIEF JUSTICE Bryan Sykes has called on the judiciary to play its part in facilitating the digital transformation of the Jamaican society by embracing and incorporating modern and efficient technologies in the administration of justice.
Pointing to the malfunction of the sole photocopying machine that existed for the Supreme Court five months ago, Sykes said this resulted in major delays to the administration of justice since important court documents for numerous cases could not have been photocopied. Additionally, he said there were transcripts of criminal cases dating from 2018 to 2020 which were being held up because they could not be copied to be sent to the Court of Appeal.
While speaking at the annual Assize Service to mark the opening session of the Michaelmas Term of the Home Circuit Court on Sunday, which was held inside the Mona Chapel, The University of the West Indies, Mona, the chief justice said the appointment of a director of digital transformation will ensure that the process becomes a priority for the judiciary.
“The judiciary must now fully implement the [Professor Barrington] Chevannes report of 2007 [the Jamaican Justice System Reform Task Force]. The Justice Training Institute and the Judicial Education Institute of Jamaica, along with the soon to-be-created director of digital transformation, [who] must develop the necessary training modules for all levels of staff, including judges,” Sykes said.
“For the first four years since I have been chief justice, we have been engaged in changing the way in which we operate, largely through the development and implementation of a strategic plan,” Sykes stressed.
With the execution of that strategic plan, Sykes said the focus of the judiciary will shift towards sustainability.
“How will we do that? The judiciary has adopted in full, and without reservation, all the recommendations in an analysis of the justice sector of Jamaica done by the Inter-American Development Bank in a reported [dated] April 2021,” he said.
He said that report highlighted several areas of weakness, which will be addressed over the next four to six years.
“At the end of my tenure as chief justice, Jamaica must have a faster, simpler and more effective court system enabled by digital data and technology… If service delivery and convenience to our consumers do not improve at the end of my tenure as chief justice, then I would have considered myself having failed,” Sykes said.
“For this to happen,” he said, “the judiciary needs the commitment of the executive and legislature to provide the necessary funding over the next four to six years, so that there can be a raising of digital literacy improved infrastructure, not just to the digital environment, but to the physical environment as well, which will allow a digital ecosystem to emerge. A necessary step in this direction is the establishment of a director of digital transformation whose job will be to establish the intellectual and mental mindset, as well as the physical environment for the continued transformation to take place.”
Sykes said the judiciary cannot be seen to be an obstacle to the drive to create a digital economy.
He encouraged judges, masters, registrars and staff to develop the necessary technological literacy and use appropriate technology to enhance productivity within the justice system.
“We are going to be reducing the time standard for the parish courts, where, for ordinary cases, it would be 12 months, and for more complex cases, 15 months, and so that is one of the successes that we can speak about following the implementation of our strategic plan where it is actually going to result in shorter wait times in one level of our courts,” Sykes said.
“In the end, it does not matter how independent the judiciary is, if there is no improvement in service delivery,” he told members of the judiciary.
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