{"id":68948,"date":"2012-07-23T14:46:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T18:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=68948"},"modified":"2012-07-24T09:26:29","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T13:26:29","slug":"too-many-adjournments-in-court-system-chief-magistrate-baptiste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/too-many-adjournments-in-court-system-chief-magistrate-baptiste\/","title":{"rendered":"Too many adjournments in court system &#8211; Chief Magistrate Baptiste"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_44571\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44571\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44571 \" title=\"evalina baptiste\" src=\"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/evalina-baptiste.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/evalina-baptiste.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/evalina-baptiste-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44571\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Evalina Baptiste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chief Magistrate Evalina Baptiste has expressed frustration at the volume of adjourned matters that is clogging the court system and says she is determined to have the matter fixed.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in court on the issue, Baptiste expressed her \u201cdisgust and frustration\u201d as a young woman desperately attempted to have the magistrate adjourn a matter dating back to 2010, which involved the woman and the state.<\/p>\n<p>The court had already granted several adjournments in that matter and was set to proceed on July 5, 2012 but with her lawyer being absent, the defendant asked for another adjournment which the magistrate flatly refused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are out there blasting the magistrates saying they are not doing their work and don\u2019t want to do certain matters but they are not hearing the other side where people come to court and continuously ask for adjournments,\u201d Baptiste said.<\/p>\n<p>An obviously annoyed Chief Magistrate told the defendant that if she were to grant an adjournment in \u201cthat simple matter\u201d she would \u201crecuse herself\u201d &#8211; views also articulated by the prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll people do is come to court and ask for adjournments in almost all matters\u2026we have work to do and this is frustrating, this is a simple matter and I am fed up,\u201d she said. She gave the young lady in question one hour to get another lawyer to represent her in the matter.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with DNO, Baptiste explained that \u201con any court day, we usually choose the oldest matter for priority hearing followed by the PI matters. However, many times we are ready to go and then we receive correspondence from counsel. We then have to weigh each case on its merit and in the idle circumstances; we would have liked to complete each matter within nine (9) months. The constant adjournments are rather frustrating and the court system does not have enough teeth to bite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She told DNO that it becomes even more \u201cfrustrating\u201d when defendants ask magistrates to recluse themselves in matters that have started and are far ahead. \u201cWhen this is done, that matter goes before another magistrate and has to be started all over\u2026..the system does have lots of problems which are frustrating at all levels,\u201d she complained.<\/p>\n<p>Baptiste conceded that more courts and magistrates are needed to help the system function much better but was quick to add \u201cthat is for the powers that be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meantime, Peter Alleyne a defense lawyer, agrees with the Chief Magistrate but said the shortage of magistrates, coupled with the fact that lawyers are \u201csole\u201d practitioners with conflicting court dates in the high court and Masters court, further compounding the matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe system needs a review\u2026\u2026merger of the magistrate\u2019s court with the high court, we have major systemic problems,\u201d Alleyne stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chief Magistrate Evalina Baptiste has expressed frustration at the volume of adjourned matters that is clogging the court system and says she is determined to have the matter fixed. Speaking in court on the issue, Baptiste expressed her \u201cdisgust and&#8230;","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":44571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Too many adjournments in court system - Chief Magistrate Baptiste - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/too-many-adjournments-in-court-system-chief-magistrate-baptiste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Too many adjournments in court system - Chief Magistrate Baptiste - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chief Magistrate Evalina Baptiste has expressed frustration at the volume of adjourned matters that is clogging the court system and says she is determined to have the matter fixed. 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