South lawyers want San Fernando High Court reopened; concerns raised over virtual court

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THE Assembly of Southern Lawyers (ASL) has made an impassioned plea for the physical reopening and more courts in south, claiming legal professionals in the south are being treated as second tier, and litigants are being denied justice owing to the lack of physical space to hear trials.

At the ASL’s Christmas dinner on November 22 at Paria Suites Hotel, La Romaine, immediate past president, attorney Michael Rooplal, said because of the lack of physical space to hear trials, accused people are now being given court dates for 2026 and beyond.

“We must recognise the southern legal community is being treated as second-class citizens, second-class lawyers by the powers that be. We continue to not have any operational courts in San Fernando and the time has come for us to consider some other means to drive the point home and for citizens and legal practitioners south of the Caroni River to be taken seriously,” he said.

ASL president Saira Lakhan, in her address to the audience which included former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, Israel Khan SC and Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe, said, “The reality is the San Fernando High Court has been closed (since August 2023) and there have been no frequent updates from the judiciary or transparent or open updates as to when that court will be reopened or whether an alternate court could be used.

Infrastructural upgrades was the reason given for the closure of the High Court.

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The San Fernando magistrates court was also torn down after an earthquake caused structural concerns, and a new district court was promised,

Rooplal, in an interview on November 23, said this is highly unacceptable.

After the demolition of the old magistrates court on Harris Promenade and Penitence Streets, Rooplal recalled then Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi “promised with a lot of fanfare and flair, a district court.

“That district court was supposed to be opened two years ago. The foundation is there, but there is no structure. Nothing is going on. There is security there at nights, but we have no word as to what is taking place with a court for San Fernando.”

He said letters written to the CJ during his five years as ASL president, “on pertinent issues affecting southern lawyers, never received a response from the CJ. I got acknowledgement e-mails from his assistant, that the letters were received.

Rooplal said the southern community, as far as Cedros, Point Fortin, Rio Claro, Mayaro are being served by two courts in Princes Town for trials by jury – Assize matters.

The old Princes Town court is no longer operational, and a district court is now in use to service the entire southern area.

There is one other court setup for trial at the UTT facility in O'meara, along with courts located at the Port of Spain Waterfront.

“This is wholly insufficient.”

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He said the Medina Building, San Fernando, which has three rooms available, but only two are in operation, is being used as a virtual access centre (VAC). This facility is used when witnesses have to give live evidence.

“A lot of magistrates use this facility, but no in-person trials take place within these walls. It is a very strange circumstance with no operational civil or criminal courts.”

Harping on the inadequacy of this situation, Rooplal gave a personal testimony about his clients who were waiting for 20 years to have a matter heard. He said the matter was fixed for March 2024 at Princes Town, but one week before the trial, the matter had to be adjourned.

“So from March 2024, my clients now have a date in November 2025, which was the earliest date available.

“The issue really is alarming. We have a situation where in January 2024, the administration of justice indictable act (AJIPA) was proclaimed and brought into force. What that has done, it has removed the bottleneck that was in the magistrates courts, in terms of preliminary inquiries, and brought it into the High Court. What in turn has happened, is that now sufficiency hearings are taking place, and the Masters of the High Court would then make a determination as to whether there is a case to be answered and then transfer the matter to a judge.

“So the bottleneck has been shifted from the magistrates court to the High Court. Apart from that, although we have had legislative change, physically, in terms of the resources, building resources, they are the same.

“So it is really a situation where, yes, we have legislative changes being brought about, which hopefully in time would remove a lot of the obstacles in the criminal justice system, that the wheels of justice would start turning more swiftly, but if we do not have the physical resources, both in terms of building, staff, even the DPP’s office in terms of prosecutors, then the legislative changes would amount to nothing.”

Concerns over virtual court

Saying she missed the physical court, the camaraderie with fellow attorneys at the bar table, ability to learn from observing senior practitioners, Lakhan said, “It has become very lonely doing virtual court.”

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She said virtual court cannot ascertain the integrity of certain trials, especially when the cameras are focused on one person, and there is no telling, in the absence of a court marshall, whether witnesses are being prompted.

“We are all sitting behind a screen. A lot of lawyers don’t have physical offices, they are working from home. They convert a bedroom into an office.

“The Chamber system has broken down, so they are not learning from seniors. They do not have exposure. We have tried at the ASL to launch a mentorship programme to try to encourage to younger lawyers to reach out to senior lawyers. The reality is with so many of them coming out, we have no avenue to really get them in a physical space to speak to them.

“We don’t even know many of these new lawyers who are coming out. Sometimes you go to court and see people on the link and you don’t even know who they are because that sense of community has been totally lost.

Pointing to the cohort of some 150 new lawyers who were called to the bar on Friday, Rooplal said, “In the old days which was pre-covid, they would be able to go to court, they could sit – they did not even have to go to court for a matter. They could sit in court, learn what to do and learn what not to do. That is missing.

“Every year we are churning out over 200 attorneys, the legal profession, in my respectful view is saturated.”