Joshua Seemu­n­gal

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

joshua.seemu­n­gal@guardian.co.tt

Peo­ple wait­ing for the dis­tri­b­u­tion of as­sets–to in­her­it the prop­er­ties, mon­ey or in­vest­ments of de­ceased loved ones–face ag­o­nis­ing hold-ups as there is an ap­prox­i­mate de­lay of six years in pro­cess­ing pro­bate mat­ters at the Ju­di­cia­ry of T&T.

In­for­ma­tion ob­tained from the Ju­di­cia­ry by Guardian Me­dia in a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­quest re­vealed that as of Oc­to­ber 2023, there were 14,915 pend­ing pro­bate mat­ters.

Be­tween Au­gust 1, 2020, to Ju­ly 31, 2023, 7,690 pro­bate mat­ters were com­plet­ed. With 7,690 pro­bate mat­ters com­plet­ed in the 1,095 days be­tween Au­gust 1, 2020, and Ju­ly 31, 2023, it works out to around sev­en pro­bate mat­ters be­ing com­plet­ed a day.

Us­ing the rate of sev­en com­plet­ed mat­ters a day, it is es­ti­mat­ed that the 14,915 pend­ing mat­ters will take 5.8 years to com­plete at the present rate.

Num­ber of com­plet­ed pro­bate mat­ters:

Au­gust 1, 2022, to Ju­ly 31, 2023–2,551 mat­ters

Au­gust 1, 2021, to Ju­ly 31, 2022– 2,616 mat­ters

Au­gust 1, 2020, to Ju­ly 31, 2021–2,523 mat­ters

Be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2021, and Au­gust 31, 2023, 7,240 grants were is­sued by the pro­bate reg­istry–an av­er­age of sev­en a day.

Be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2023, and Au­gust 31, 2023–1,711 grants were is­sued.

Be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2022, and De­cem­ber 31, 2022–3,214 grants were is­sued.

Be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2021, and De­cem­ber 31, 2021–2,315 grants were is­sued.

LATT work­ing along­side Ju­di­cia­ry

to en­sure de­lays elim­i­nat­ed

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go said it was aware of the de­lays in the is­sue of grants by the Pro­bate Reg­istry of the High Court of Jus­tice. The as­so­ci­a­tion said it held dis­cus­sions with the Ju­di­cia­ry to iden­ti­fy the is­sues and im­ple­ment so­lu­tions.

“The Ju­di­cia­ry has part­nered with the LATT in sen­si­tis­ing LATT mem­bers to is­sues which po­ten­tial­ly de­lay grants. The LATT has al­so ap­prised the Ju­di­cia­ry of con­cerns and com­plaints which mem­bers have.

“Dis­cus­sions be­tween the LATT and the Ju­di­cia­ry are on­go­ing, and LATT mem­bers have seen im­prove­ments in the speed with which grants are ob­tained. The LATT con­tin­ues to work as­sid­u­ous­ly along­side the Ju­di­cia­ry and will do all with­in its pow­er to en­sure that these de­lays are elim­i­nat­ed,” LATT said.

In Jan­u­ary 2023, To­bag­on­ian at­tor­neys ex­pressed frus­tra­tion with the op­er­a­tions of the Pro­bate Reg­istry, call­ing for Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie to ad­dress the is­sues. The To­ba­go Lawyers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TLA) penned a let­ter to the Chief Jus­tice in Ju­ly 2022 en­ti­tled “Dif­fi­cul­ties be­ing faced by at­tor­neys at law at the Pro­bate Reg­istry.”

Then TLA pres­i­dent Dawn Palack­d­har­ry Singh wrote that the as­so­ci­a­tion re­ceived a large num­ber of com­plaints about the ap­pli­ca­tion process­es for let­ters of ad­min­is­tra­tion and grants of pro­bate. She said there were is­sues with a lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the Reg­istry; the ab­sence of a pro­bate di­vi­sion for To­ba­go, as well as con­flict­ing in­struc­tions from the as­sis­tant reg­is­trars.

“The cu­mu­la­tive re­sult is that it is be­com­ing very dif­fi­cult to get these ap­pli­ca­tions com­plet­ed. We have to deal with our clients, who are some­times per­sons in great need of grants to ac­cess funds and deal with prop­er­ty or el­der­ly per­sons who have to make mul­ti­ple trips to our of­fi­cers for queries that serve no re­al clar­i­fi­ca­tion to the is­su­ing of a grant.

“While we ap­pre­ci­ate the new ef­fi­cien­cy of the on­line search­es, the bot­tle­neck has now moved fur­ther along the process,” Palack­d­har­ry Singh wrote in the let­ter.

In Ju­ly 2018, the Ju­di­cia­ry launched the E-Pro­bate Reg­istry—an on­line ser­vice for lodg­ing pro­bate search­es. An on­line post by the Ju­di­cia­ry said, “The sys­tem gives at­tor­neys an elec­tron­ic record of all their search re­sults and their search his­to­ry. This pro­vides a greater lev­el of ac­count­abil­i­ty by the Ju­di­cia­ry and by At­tor­neys.”