The Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST) Project in collaboration with the Barbados Bar Association (BBA) will host a second two day seminar to address the ongoing development of the Barbados Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). The seminar will take place from November 11-12, 2015 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre and will address how evidence is dealt with under the CPR and the art of providing written submissions under the rubric of written advocacy.
The JURIST Project is a five year regional Caribbean judicial reform initiative funded under an arrangement with the Government of Canada. It is being implemented on behalf of Global Affairs Canada and the Conference of the Heads of Judiciary of CARICOM (the Conference), by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which was appointed by the Conference as its Regional Executing Agency (REA). The Rt. Hon. Sir Dennis Byron, President of the CCJ is the Project’s Director.
The Project is working with judiciaries in the region to support their own efforts to improve court administration and strengthen the ability of the courts and the judiciary to resolve cases efficiently and fairly. The Project is being implemented in at least six countries and will be expanded to include other territories in the region. Special attention will also be paid to building the capacity and skills of judges, court administrators and court personnel to deliver services that address the needs of women, men, girls and boys.
The first seminar, which took place from May 27-28, 2015 was conducted by the Honorable Dame Janice Pereira, DBE, Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) and the Honorable Louise Esther Blenman, Justice of Appeal who serves as the Chair of the ECSC’s Judicial Education Institute. It provided over 200 representatives of Barbados legal fraternity with a comprehensive understanding of the recently introduced CPR.
These seminars are initiatives under the JURIST’s model court project in Barbados for developing reduction mechanisms to deal with delays and backlogs. Ensuring sound knowledge of the content, practice and application of the Barbados CPR by practitioners and the judiciary is a key component of the project.
The upcoming seminar will be opened by Mr. Richard Hanley, High Commissioner of Canada, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and conducted by the Hon. Mr. Justice C. Dennis Morrison, a judge of the Court of Appeal of Jamaica. It will include a high quality training program for the legal profession aimed at ensuring that participants understand:
- The nature and quality of evidence that must be provided for the purposes of a trial;
- The considerations that must be taken account of when providing written submissions in aid of applications and other pleadings made under the CPR.; and
- How practitioners can prepare written submissions to represent written advocacy.
CPR was introduced in Barbados in 2008. Under the new dispensation all matters would hitherto comply with the rules as set out, the overriding objective being to do justice to the parties. The practical effect is that judge’s case manage while practitioners assume the front end of preparing pleadings on a trial ready basis.
For further information please contact:
Ms. Allison Ali
Communications Specialist,
JURIST Project
Caribbean Court of Justice
Tel: (868) 623-2225 ext 2225 | Mobile: (868) 383-6408
E-mail: aali@juristproject.org
