Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 24, 2019 (SKNIS): Services at the Sir Lee Llewellyn Moore Judicial and Legal Complex in St. Kitts are expected to be expanded with the construction of an annex that would house a mediation centre dedicated to promoting peaceful resolutions.
This was according to Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs and Attorney General, the Honourable Vincent Byron Jr., during his appearance on Monday’s (July 22) edition of Straight Talk on Winn FM.
“We would expect to establish a mediation centre. [The mediation centre] allows most matters to go to mediation to try to be resolved in terms of alternate dispute resolution prior to going to trial so that the expense of trials, the ability to resolve disputes between parties before you have to take that final step, will now be handled,” said the Attorney General.
Minister Byron spoke about the 25 persons who were trained in March 2019 as mediators.
“Earlier this year we were able to run a very comprehensive training session to train mediators. We were able to train some 25 mediators,” he said, adding that over the years there were only mediators to handle the workload. “The training was conducted by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court [ECSC] so that those who would have gone through that training would now be certified by the High Court, by the Supreme Court to conduct mediation.”
The Attorney General used the occasion to express thanks and appreciation to the Honourable Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Dame Janice Pereira and Barbados’ Chief Justice, the Honourable Justice Martson Gibson for their presence at the training sessions.
“And we wait for the honourable chief justice to produce and set down directions for us to be able to have more of our matters go through this process to try and resolve them,” he said.
Work continues on the Sir Lee Llewellyn Moore Judicial and Legal Complex and that construction has begun on the Annex which will be situated where the old electoral office was once housed. The building will also house a third Magistrate Court Chamber “to help to dispose of more Magistrate Court’s work”.
