A senior judicial officer says Barbados’ magistracy is not only short of personnel but is being treated with utter disregard and disrespect.“I call it institutionalised disrespect,” Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes declared on Thursday as he explained that the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Courts were only able to hear urgent matters and new charges as staff were “scotching” at the Supreme Court.The No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court over which Weekes presides and the District ‘A’ Traffic Court were relocated to the Supreme Court Complex on Whitepark Road in April last year, with a weekly sitting beginning at 1 p.m.; while the staff in the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court work from a room above the District ‘D’ Police Station at Cane Garden, St Thomas.The three courts were reportedly moved from their original location due to unsafe working conditions following the ashfall from the eruption of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ La Soufrière volcano, among other things.
