President of the Central Lawyers Association, attorney Richard Sirjoo, says the space at the newly refurbished Chaguanas Magistrates’ Court is still not enough to accommodate members of the public who have to visit the courthouse.
The court was officially reopened last Friday at a renovated cost of $15 million. Yesterday, the court’s three magistrates sat in the building for the first time in 19 months
But by yesterday afternoon, Sirjoo took to his Facebook page to lament that although the courthouse was newly refurbished, it still could not accommodate all the people who used it.
“Whatever consideration that was done to it, the space is still a finite one; it simply cannot accommodate the volume of people who go there for service,” Sirjoo told the T&T Guardian in an interview.
“That is why in the photographs you would see a large crowd gathered in front of the court, on the pavement and spilling out onto the road.”
Sirjoo said there were four security checkpoints at the courthouse, which further slowed down the process.
“There is one by the road, where you are asked to show your ID’s before entering.
There is a security checkpoint inside where they scan you, then you go through and you are categorised between who is going to the counter and who is going to the courtroom, that is the third.”
“And when you get to the door of the court, there is a fourth.
“Today for example, you had to have names being called over the PA system and if the person is outside, the magistrate has to sit and wait for that person to make their way through that maze, then to arrive at the court.”
He said the association is renewing its call for the library building next to the courthouse to be made into an administrative complex to accommodate the court.
“Next door to the court is a building earmarked for the library and we are saying that building should be used to make a judicial complex in Chaguanas.
We are saying having just three magistrates’ courts in Chaguanas is woefully inadequate.”