Derek Achong

The Ju­di­cia­ry has ex­tend­ed the time for per­sons to pay fines in­clu­sive of traf­fic tick­ets by three months.

The de­ci­sion was com­mu­ni­cat­ed in a se­ries of prac­tice di­rec­tions is­sued by Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie on Mon­day and comes a lit­tle over a month af­ter such dead­lines were au­to­mat­i­cal­ly ex­tend­ed by a month un­der the Ju­di­cia­ry's ini­tial COVID-19 mea­sures.

In the prac­tice di­rec­tions, Archie not­ed the ex­ten­sion would take ef­fect from when the pay­ment is due with per­sons with a dead­line of March 17 or May 4, for ex­am­ple, now be­ing re­quired to pay them by June 17 and Au­gust 4, re­spec­tive­ly.

"If the new due date falls on a week­end or pub­lic hol­i­day, the pay­ment be­comes due on the next court busi­ness day," Archie said.

Be­sides the pay­ment ex­ten­sion and a cor­re­spond­ing three-month post­pone­ment of hear­ings of cas­es not deemed ur­gent dur­ing the pe­ri­od, the prac­tice di­rec­tions are sim­i­lar to those is­sued by Archie in mid-March and will last un­til May 18 to co­in­cide with the State's re­cent­ly ex­tend­ed COVID-19 poli­cies.

The Ju­di­cia­ry's poli­cies are aimed at re­duc­ing the num­ber of dai­ly vis­i­tors to cour­t­hous­es around T&T and to make cour­t­hous­es as safe as pos­si­ble for staff and users, who are still re­quired to phys­i­cal­ly at­tend, by util­is­ing tech­nol­o­gy for court ser­vices.

While he not­ed that most cas­es in the Court of Ap­peal, High Court (Civ­il and Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sions), Fam­i­ly Court, Chil­dren Court, Dis­trict Crim­i­nal, and Traf­fic Courts, and the Sum­ma­ry Courts were sus­pend­ed be­tween March 16 and April 17, he stat­ed that ju­di­cial of­fi­cers were en­ti­tled to hear mat­ters which they deemed fit for hear­ing dur­ing the pe­ri­od.

Archie sug­gest­ed that a ju­di­cial of­fi­cer may make such a de­ter­mi­na­tion on their own or through an ap­pli­ca­tion from the par­ties be­fore them.

Archie not­ed that some mat­ters in the in­di­vid­ual courts were ex­empt.

In the Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sion of the High Court, cas­es un­der the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act for the de­ten­tion and for­fei­ture of cash; the In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Act; the An­ti-Gang Act; the Civ­il As­set Re­cov­ery and Man­age­ment and Un­ex­plained Wealth Act; and the Bail Act are deemed fit for hear­ing.

In the Civ­il Di­vi­sion of the High Court, mat­ters un­der the An­ti-Ter­ror­ism and Men­tal Health Acts and ap­pli­ca­tions for writs of habeas cor­pus are per­mit­ted.

In the Fam­i­ly and Chil­dren Courts, cas­es in­volv­ing do­mes­tic vi­o­lence; main­te­nance ap­pli­ca­tions and vari­a­tions; and cus­tody ap­pli­ca­tions are al­lowed.

In the Dis­trict Crim­i­nal and Traf­fic Courts, do­mes­tic vi­o­lence cas­es; main­te­nance ap­pli­ca­tions, for­fei­ture pro­ceed­ings, and part-heard pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries for se­ri­ous of­fences such as mur­der, kid­nap­ping, rob­bery, and firearm pos­ses­sion can take place.