Courts

Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and Chairman of the CCJ Academy for Law, Justice Winston Anderson has been re-appointed by the International Council of Arbitration for Sports (ICAS) as a Member of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for the period 2023 to 2026. The re-appointment was made  in May, 2023. Mr. Justice Anderson, a native ...

Guyana is borrowing Trinidad and Tobago’s plea bargaining legislation, aimed at facilitating discussions between prosecutors and offenders to ease the backlog of criminal cases and reduce the prison population, authorities said. “Its primary intent is to provide the opportunity for prosecutors and accused persons to meet under specific circumstances and negotiate a settlement acceptable to the principles of justice,” the ...

Well-known Guyanese lawyer Nigel Hughes on Monday defended his decision to defend People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) government minister, Nigel Dharamlall in a rape allegation by a 16-year old schoolgirl, arguing that his priority is to ensure that the system works fairly for the complainant and the accused. “We have to ensure first of all you protect the person who ...

Guyana’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Hack on Saturday recommended the scrapping of jury trials for murder accused in the interior regions, and offences such as money laundering, trafficking in persons and cybercrime because of the technical nature of the evidence. She called on the Guyana government to amend the legislation to allow for judge-only trials as reasons should ...

Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Judge, Jacob Wit on Saturday expressed concern about the protracted delay in accused persons on bail and on remand awaiting trial, prompting him to recommend the establishment of a pre-trial Chamber in Guyana to address the worrying trend. “Regionally, the delays are such that they are simply unacceptable. In some persons, accused persons are on ...

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. On Wednesday, 21 June 2023, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), sitting in Guyana, delivered its judgment for the special leave application, AB v The Director of Public Prosecutions [2023] CCJ 8 (AJ) GY. The CCJ denied the Applicant special leave to appeal to the CCJ to review a decision of the Court of Appeal of Guyana, ...

Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall was released from five hours of police custody and placed on GY$1 million bail as police continued to probe a rape allegation against him, Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes said. The prominent Guyanese civil and criminal lawyer told Demerara Waves Online News that his client was not questioned during the eight-hour long detention, but the allegation was ...

The High Court on Monday dismissed an opposition case that had sought to challenge the legitimacy of the passage of the Natural Resource  Fund Act on the basis that the parliamentary mace had been removed by angry parliamentarians who had sought to block debate on the Bill because there was no consultation. “The absence of the mace in the National ...

The Guyana Court of Appeal on Thursday ordered a stay of a High Court suspension order of the Liza 1 operations if ExxonMobil does not provide an unlimited financial guarantee for any clean-up that may be caused by an oil spill. Noting that there was a reasonable prospect for success of an appeal, Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud also ordered ...

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) said it would not win a majority of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in the June 12 Local Government Elections (LGE) because several constituency boundaries have been merged to its disadvantage. “We will not a get an overall victory in terms of the number of NDCs but we ...