Transcript delays dog court cases, report shows
Published:Monday | April 18, 2022 | 12:08 AM
The long delay in the production of transcripts of criminal trials has been highlighted as a great cause for concern in the 2021 annual report of the Court of Appeal.
President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Patrick Brooks, said the delay had repercussions during the course of the year.
He said that one applicant had his conviction quashed, as the absence of the transcript prevented his appeal from being heard, despite the fact that he had been incarcerated for more than eight years awaiting the hearing of his application for permission to appeal.
Another person who had appealed his conviction and sentence had his sentence reduced as redress for the breach of his constitutional right to have his appeal heard within a reasonable time.
“There promises to be more challenges to convictions and sentences along these lines,” Brooks said.
The 2021 annual report showed that between 2002 and 2015, a total of 64 criminal transcripts were outstanding. Further, between 2016 and 2020, approximately 115 criminal transcripts were outstanding.
Brooks said that towards the end of the year, the court focused on the oldest cases, both criminal and civil, which had remained pending as a result of outstanding transcripts and records of appeal.
“As a result of that attention, it was discovered that some of the appellants/applicants in criminal cases had been released from prison, despite the fact that their appeals had not been heard. The status of those appeals is being assessed,” the Court of Appeal president said.
He said the attorneys-at-law involved in the long-outstanding civil cases were asked to attend case-management conferences, and several of the appeals were terminated as a result of that intervention.
The annual report showed a 4.57 per cent increase in the total number of appeals that were pending at the end of 2021, compared to 2020.
At the close of 2020, the total number of appeals pending was 1,791. With a total of 371 criminal appeals awaiting transcripts and 463 civil appeals awaiting certified records of proceedings at the close of 2020, the “true” pending figure at the close of that year was 957.
By comparison, at the close of 2021, the total number of appeals pending was 1,873. After taking account of the 251 criminal appeals awaiting transcripts and the 449 civil appeals awaiting certified records of proceedings, the “true” pending figure at the close of 2021 was 1,173.
Reflecting on the year 2021, Brooks noted that having survived the initial shock of the pandemic, “the court set about not only increasing the number of judgments delivered over the record number in 2020, but also increased the number of appeals and applications that it heard to pre-pandemic levels. Most of those hearings were conducted using the virtual electronic platform”.
The Court of Appeal has reported a 31.22 per cent increase in the number of new appeals filed in 2021 over the previous year. It is noted that in 2021, of the 290 new appeals filed, 78, or 26.8 per cent, were from the parish courts. This reflects an increase of 85.8 per cent in the number of parish court appeals received in 2021 over 2020, when the number received was 42.
The report stated that 61 per cent of the total matters disposed of in 2021 were concluded within six months. Of the 233 matters that were disposed of within six months of hearing, 61.8 per cent were completed on the same day of hearing, 87.5 per cent within a week, and 96.13 per cent over a three-month period.
The Court of Appeal registered an overall judgment delivery rate of 360.38 per cent in 2021. This suggests that for every 10 newly reserved judgments in 2021, roughly 36 judgments were delivered. The highest judgment delivery rate was recorded in the Michaelmas term, with 460 per cent, while the Hilary term recorded the lowest rate, with 260 per cent.
The international standard for the annual judgment delivery rate is 100 per cent.
And the Court of Appeal has made significant steps to clear outstanding judgments.
“There was a 100 per cent reduction in the number of 2018 outstanding judgments. Additionally, there was a 76 per cent reduction in the number of judgments outstanding from 2019, and a 50 per cent reduction in the number outstanding from 2020,” the report stated.