Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett says that the backlog of cases at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court might not be what it seems, in light of the fact that the court was closed for most of last year and part of 2018.
Speaking in court recently, Burnett said that there might be a view that there is a backlog at the court.
He, however, said that he had asked his clerk to give him the numbers, and the data show that at the end of October, there were 520 matters pending before the court
Burnett, however, said that 544 matters entered the system from January to October this year, with 323 cases entering between June and October.
This is in addition to the matters that were pending before those periods.
“So, even though the court was closed for most of 2019 and part of 2018, we are not doing as bad as the figures may show without analysing them properly,” the senior magistrate said.
The magistrate said he normally likes to put figures in context.
“That’s what the evidence is showing,” he said.
The Kingstown Magistrate’s Court was closed for much of 2019 and part of 2018, when Burnett acted as a High Court master.
No magistrate was appointed to preside over his court during that period.