IT is not often I take time to respond to social media questions. I think an exception is fair to respond to the question asked by the Express regarding the performance of the judicial system, seeing that the head, Ivor Archie, suggested that he would be stepping down as Chief Justice (CJ) soon. Unlike Israel Khan, I hold no brief for or against the CJ.

Anyone vaguely familiar with my style knows that I find it inherently and intellectually lazy to respond straightforward to any question. There is always a need for clarification, if only to lend a better understanding of the context behind why the issue became a question in the first place.

It is impossible to understand the judicial system without understanding that it is merely one arm of the crimi-nal justice system (CJS,) which relies on others arms of the State, namely police and prisons. Those three arms together form the CJS. Several other agencies and professions also contri-bute to the running of the CJS. One of the professions central to the operation of the CJS is that of lawyers. From my experiences with them, I refer to them as “shysters”.

Before I get back to the question, I think this needs to be established. Early in my pursuit of tertiary education, I understood that “an organisation, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it”. A parallel statement says it’s “only as good as its leaders”. That simple phrase applies to any organisation, be it a school, hospital, criminal organisation…even the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT).

Following from this observation, we recognise the people who make up the Judiciary are, for the most part, largely shysters. Their ranking, like junior, senior counsel, king’s counsel, are but their organisation’s way of validating their members’ self-importance; much like the opening of a “law term” that entails a useless march through the city, all garbed in their costumes.

So, Israel Khan is celebrating the idea that the CJ is finally removing himself. This is the same Israel Khan who described Mr Archie as “a good jurist”, “very bright” and a “brilliant attorney”. Apparently, he was not good enough to be the CJ. To be fair, Mr Khan also identified several other lawyers whom he described as “good jurists”. But the goodly CJ did not provide a specific date for his departure; much like another “leader” recently.

A reasonable question would be: seeing that we have all these good jurists, great lawyers and brilliant attorneys in such senior positions, perhaps someone can explain to the nation what and who is/are responsible for the entire criminal justice system being totally dysfunctional? Particularly the Judiciary. Khan pointed to the 600 killings committed by cops over the past few years while the CJ apparently sat on his thumbs.

The massive delays in the justice system did not start with Mr Archie in January of 2008. And if experience remains the best teacher, we should not expect the incoming CJ to make any significant changes. So who are the people really responsible for the ten to 15-year delays in meting out justice to the accused?

Shysters, fresh out of law school, are introduced to a dysfunctional system before even passing the bar. They prepare for their entry into the criminal world, much like nurses, police officers, et al. They enter the subculture of dealing with what one former commissioner of police referred to as “cockroaches”. Ironically, the cockroaches pay the bills.

And while the system advocates “innocent until proven guilty”, shysters encou-rage their clients to have their cases postponed for as long as possible. Shysters start off with the premise that their clients are guilty. They convince them that the postponements would work in their favour: witnesses and victims are more likely to forget, die, migrate…. And with each postponement comes an appearance fee—simply to request another postponement.

These shysters pay their dues and wait their turn to make it up the ranks; to get their names in the media on high-profile cases. Some get into politics as it seems less demanding. A chosen few get titles like SC added to their names in due course. Many make it to the benches where they become magistrates and judges.

Unfortunately, most settle into the culture where they prefer to just kick the can down the road, while blaming others, much like Israel Khan, SC.

Rudy Chato Paul Sr