Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham on Tuesday bluntly criticised the country’s judicial system which he declared must be overhauled and modernised.Stressing the need to address severe staff shortages in the judiciary and implement changes to bring the system into the current era, he also announced plans to appoint a court executive administrator to take over the administrative duties of the Registrar of the Supreme Court.In a no-holds-barred speech to mark the ceremonial opening of the legal year 2022-2023, Sir Patterson lamented that the judiciary had not changed much in the last 60 years and the system was “burdened with overloads” and “anchored to operating systems long obsolete”.He suggested that a court executive administrator who would “take over and manage the administration of the courts” with a small staff, reporting directly to the Chief Justice, would assist in this regard.Sir Patterson said that post would be advertised “very shortly”.
