And, even after those very long speeches, the parliamentarians still took the time out to pass a series of bills that came from the House. We report now on the discussion over the Time Limit for Judicial Decisions Bill of 2021. That's the draft piece of legislation that the Briceno Government wants to pass to impose a 6-month time limit on judges. They are trying to avoid the situation left behind by former Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. He vacated the post without delivering judgments in a significant number of cases.
So, the new government wants to make sure it doesn't happen again. Here now is the back-and-forth between attorney senators, the PUP's Eamon Courtenay, and the UDP's Mike Peyrefitte:
Hon. Eamon Courtenay - Leader of Government Business "Madam President, the bill before us provides for the setting of time limits for the delivery of judgments. The time limits are 6 months both in the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court. And it provides for the time limits for applications not later than 30 days. The mischief this bill is designed to do, Madam President, is to ensure that people who go to court seeking justice are not denied justice by delay. We had the very unfortunate and really outrageous situation of the last Chief Justice leaving the jurisdiction with judgments that had not been completed, and the litigants are before the court now, trying to figure out what to do. This is a part of the reform agenda of the People's United Party."
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte - UDP Senator "Madam President, I can see what the Government is trying to do, however, as Senator Courtenay, the mischief to be cured. Now, as he said, indeed, the chief mischief-maker, if you want to put it that way has left the jurisdiction. And I don't think that, since that time, we've had any inordinate delays in the delivery of judgments, or have we? I'm thinking that we don't have any backlog in decisions for cases to that level, that we need to pass a piece of legislation like this. There already is the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. You already have the Belize Advisory Council that can take care of judges who are not performing. And then, this is the next thing, Madam President. You can't turn the fire upon the judges like this and don't provide them with the means to deliver their decisions in time, along with continuing to do other cases."
