Chief Justice Ivor Archie has issued an ultimatum to Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, that he expected all courts to be manned by prosecutors from his department.
Archie’s expectation was issued in a letter exchange between both men from December 2022 into January 2023 on the assignment and training of prosecutors. However, Gaspard in response warned his office simply did not have prosecutors to send to the courts by March.
Sunday Newsday reported on the staff shortages at the Office of the DPP reaching critical levels which has left the State’s criminal-law department unable to properly man all the courts in TT.
Within the last two weeks, there have been reports that prosecutors have not been appearing for some case-management conference (CMC) hearings before judges, excluding trials, and there were none appearing before any of the newly-appointed judges hired in December.
Among those are two who were senior prosecutors in the department. Since then, three more senior attorneys have resigned with another expected to do so shortly to take up a position in the British Virgin Islands.
In December, Gaspard put the CJ on warning that his office “will not be in a position to have persons assigned to any new judges for the said month of January.”
He explained although the department received additional staff – 20 new attorneys in August 2022 – because they did not have the experience to be assigned on their own in the magistrates’ courts, they would have to be trained.
Gaspard said the training would take six weeks.
On January 31, Gaspard said the CJ’s insistence that all courts be manned “was interesting,” while he thanked him for acceding to the request for the training sessions on Fridays.
He also put the CJ on notice that the situation was likely to extend beyond six weeks.
“I feel constrained to explain further that the month of February will be used by this office not only for training but for the reorganisation and reassignment of approximately 1,000 files assigned to those attorneys in the magistrates’ courts who now had to go to the assizes.
“These will have to be reassigned to the new prosecutors who are also included in the training plan.”
Gaspard said many of those cases involved complex legal and factual issues and proper reassignment will require those attorneys to prepare the relevant files which are to be taken over by the new prosecutors.
“In light of our training plan, the impending redistribution of files which will take place in February 2023, my earlier allusion to the loss of experienced prosecutors and the non-replacement of these prosecutors in the face of the number of inexperienced prosecutors who have recently joined this department, I regret to inform you that I simply do not have the prosecutors available to furnish all the courts before the month of March 2023.”
Gaspard said his responsibility was not only to the assizes but also to the magistrates’ courts, children’s courts and the Court of Appeal.
“The Office of the Director of Public Prose
