Aug 21 - GSD: Judge Contract Row Shows How Out Of Touch This Government Is
The GSD has said that the Government's reaction to the position of the non-renewal of Mr Jack's contract “demonstrates how entirely out of touch the Government are” with the Gibraltar Court Service, the Judiciary and the members of the legal professional. The Opposition says that the Government “chooses yet again to blame the GSD when this is a problem of their making.”
A statement made public this morning continued: “The Government appears fixated with the past in its attempts to tarnish the achievements of the former GSD Government and by doing so they are failing to appreciate the real working demands of our modern Court Service.
“In a matter of hours since the Opposition raised its concerns and in an unprecedented move, the Honourable Chief Justice confirmed that he was seeking to persuade the Government to appoint a fourth judge. The statement by the Chief Justice is welcomed by all. In addition the representative body lawyers, the Bar Council have confirmed that they have not been consulted on the decision not to fund a fourth judge. The importance of those two statements cannot be underestimated and evidence how out of touch the Government are with the delivery of justice.
“The Chief Justice was absolutely correct in his statement that our judiciary requires flexibility to be able to deal with peaks and troughs in cases that come before it. If the Government are serious about encouraging business to establish themselves in Gibraltar and make our community their home, our judiciary will need the support of a company/commercial judge in order to help it attract and retain that business. This fact coupled with the remarks of the Chairman of the Bar Council who highlighted at last year's Opening of the Legal Year, the serious problem with ordinary working people accessing the justice system demonstrates the clear need to retain current judicial resource levels.
“Our Courts need to be agile and flexible to adapt to the peaks and troughs of litigation and not having that fourth resource available will in due course become acutely felt by our Court Service, our judiciary, our legal profession and most importantly the users of this essential service, the public.
“What is remarkable is the absence of any response whatsoever from the Minister for Justice, Neil Costa MP. This speaks volumes and the Minister must now explain in full the change of position by the Government and the circumstances leading to the non-renewal of Mr Jack's contract. The Minister for Justice swore an oath to protect the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and provide resources to our Courts and therefore he is duty bound to explain the reduction in judicial resources.”
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