The backlog of cases before the courts have been reduced substantially according to Chief Justice Anthony Gates.
Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights, Justice Gates highlighted that case management meetings are held regularly to help judges and magistrates sift through their workload.
Justice Gates says this has already made a difference in the Labasa High Court which at one point had a huge backlog.
Case management is now also being used in Suva and Lautoka.
“That is something that was not done in the past. We didn’t have a sufficiency of judicial officers. That resulted in backlog and delay. We can’t entirely say that it’s the judicial officer’s fault. The question is what is he dished out to do? What’s on his plate? My feeling is that we must make sure there is an adequacy of resources and judicial officers.”
The Chief Justice adds there are now more judges and magistrates which helps ease the workload and case backlogs aren’t as bad as they used to be in the past.
