More magistrates eyed as cases rise

National

By DAPHNE WANI
There is a need to increase the number of magistrates in the country, deputy chief magistrate Dessie Magaru says.
She said this during a consultative workshop in Port Moresby facilitated by the Constitutional Law Reform Committee to review the existing Magisterial Services Act 1975.
“Currently, there are only 87 magistrates in the whole country and we are really struggling with the increase in backlog of cases,” she said.
“There are so many court locations in the country where we need to send magistrates to but we don’t have the manpower.
“There is increase in the number of cases and the number of magistrates is not enough, including the support staff.”
Magaru said under the Magisterial Services, there were 127 used to be magistrates but the number had dropped drastically.
“This review is aimed at separating the Magisterial Services Act,” she said.
“We have the Magistrates Act which looks after the magistrates, and the Magisterial Staff Services Act that will regulate staff services.
“The initial consultations started in 2016 and we have done the internal consultations with the Magisterial Services, the magistrates and staffs consultations with the Constitutional Law Reform Commission.
“We are still part of the judicial system in the country, but we must have our own different establishment because it’s under the Constitution.
“We must have a separate act for that purpose, and there must also be clarity, in terms of the magistrates and the staff.
“This new acts will be in line with our corporate plan and will meet the requirement to increase the number of magistrates to 150, supposedly in the next three years.”
Magaru said the restructure had to take place because of the large caseloads that magistrates were faced with daily.
She also said there had been funding constraints faced by Magisterial Services, resulting in delay of construction of a district court complex in Waigani that was launched two years ago.