And finally, from our interview with Marshalleck, he shared his views on the Briceno Government's draft bill to impose a deadline for all judges to deliver decisions in cases they've heard.
It's called the Time Limit for Judicial Decisions Bill, 2020. It's the government's initial idea on how to hold judicial officers accountable for protracted delays in the delivery of judgments, which have plagued the justice system for years.
This draft bill contemplates that judgments should be handed down no later than 120 days after a full hearing has concluded before a judge.
The bill also says, quote, "...A Judge may be removed from office for...persistently failing to give written decisions and reasons for decisions within the time specified..."
End quote.
Marshalleck, who is a senior attorney, a former President of the Bar Association of Belize, and an occasional battler with the Bench - told us why he thinks the bill - if it is passed - is a positive step:
Andrew Marshalleck, SC
"Problems with the delays and the delivery of justices and delays within the court system on a whole both on criminal and civil side have been perennial. been ongoing 20-30 years and that's only as far as I have been around and can recollect from my own memory. We've had the problem reoccur time and time again. In fact you will recall that the bar had made efforts in conflict with the bench over some 55-60 judgements at the time that were delayed for years of which it was then judge Awich that was responsible for the bulk of them. In the face of that performance he was actually promoted to the court of appeal and after chief justice Conteh left he was replaced by chief justice Benjamin and he came in and left us with the very same state of affairs by the time he left and the problems seems to be growing rather than being contained and certainly the judiciary itself has had decades to confront and rapple with this for itself and unfortunately I think it has shown that its unable to do so in an effective way. So I think the legislation is a welcome change. It's not new to Belize. It's been done elsewhere Barbados and Guyana and I am hopeful it will change the culture and the approach taken by the judiciary to the need to deliver judgements in a timely way."
"The need for resources of course also evident, but I think there's always been a willingness, or rather an eagerness to call upon that as an excuse when standards are not being met and certainly it's a factor, but I think there are other factors as well which can be address which are being ignored. We've had instances here and this is extreme, it has happened where persons have been and the delays are at both levels of the court both at court of appeal level and at the supreme court level where there has been convictions, there's been an appeal and because the supreme court hasn't been able to produce records for the appeal to proceed, the appeal is delayed repeatedly year after year after year to the point where the sentence was served and completed before the appeal could be adjudicated upon. That is an instance of a complete denial of justice arising out of delay. It is a very serious thing and the Belizean public deserves timely justice and certainly judges deserves access to resources to be able to provide it, but the lack of resources isn't an excuse for not doing so. When you embark upon a case you need to see it through and you have an obligation to see it through before you embark upon the other one. You can't just simply be embarking upon all of them and not deciding any of them."
Marshalleck added that this bill is a declaration of the law as it already exists because persistently failing to deliver timely judgments equates to a judge not properly doing his or her job.
