THE Supreme Court of Judicature have ordered that magistrates hold court utilising electronic means – Zoom, Skype or Whatsapp Video with immediate effect in light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic .

These directions are in relation to Practice Directions COVID-19 Emergency Directions Gazetted on March 23, 2020 and updated on April 3, 2020.

Additionally, magistrates’ courts offices will be open to the public on the following days from 08:30hrs – 12:30hrs.

Filing of all urgent court matters must be on the dates the court offices will be open. In the event that urgent matters need to be filed on the days when the court offices are not open, contact can be made with the clerks of court for the particular magisterial districts. Notices with contact information are posted at each court office.

Operations at the Supreme Court Registry in Georgetown, Demerara and the Sub-registries at New Amsterdam, Berbice and Suddie, Essequibo are suspended until April 30, 2020. Unless otherwise advised, these registries will reopen to the public on Monday, May 4, 2020.

Filing of urgent matters, or pleadings for the Court of Appeal and High Courts as directed by the court, until May 3, 2020, must be done by email in accordance with paragraphs 30 – 33 of the Emergency Practice Directions to the following email addresses. These are Judicial Registry, High Court, Georgetown, Demerara – supremecourtguyana@gmail.com; Sub-Registry, New Amsterdam, Berbice High Court – subregistryberbice@gmail.com; Sub-Registry, Suddie, Essequibo High Court – subregessequibo@gmail.com; Family Court Registry, High Court, Georgetown – registryfamilycourt@gmail.com; Land Court, High Court, Georgetown – landcourtgy@yahoo.com: and Probate Registry, High Court, Georgetown – probateregistrygy@gmail.com.

Litigants and/or their counsel must file an undertaking to present hard copies of their matters and pay the requisite filing fees on the date designated by the Registry, which shall be on or after May 4, 2020. (NB May 1 and May 5, 2020 should be national holidays.