Joint Meeting with CPOS and Diego Martin clubs

On 23rd March, our members enjoyed fellowship with The Rotary Clubs of Central Port of Spain and Diego Martin with special guest speaker, Justice Andre de Vignes, who entertained us with the highlights of his life while explaining how the T&T justice system works. This is as follows (thanks to PE Maureen for her notes on this):

1. London - Highest Court - Privy Council

2. Court of Appeal

3. High Court (high impact cases, murder, cases above $50,000)

4. Civil Court

5. Family Court

6. Resident Magistrates Court

This court has the bulk of all the cases and is overloaded with some cases taken as long as 15 years for closure.

Civil Proceedings Rule

- He advocated that this be court driven and not lawyer driven to prevent corruption in the system

- Cases can be solved quicker: 2-3 months rather than years in the higher courts

Other courts of note:

1. Drug treatment Court - for treatment of substance abuse cases

2. Juvenile Court Project - ongoing

This court very busy due to increase in crimes committed by Juveniles