Scales of justice to be balanced
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., handing over the ‘Advocacy and Evidence for Summary Courts Prosecutors’ Course syllabus and lecture manual to Head of the Law Department at UG, attorney-at-law, Kim Kyte-Thomas
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., handing over the ‘Advocacy and Evidence for Summary Courts Prosecutors’ Course syllabus and lecture manual to Head of the Law Department at UG, attorney-at-law, Kim Kyte-Thomas

–as AG signs MoU with UG to commence prosecutors’ course in March

WITH most defendants being represented by legally trained personnel while the State, in most cases, is being represented by an untrained police prosecutor at the magistracy level, the scales of justice are sometimes unbalanced.

However, this will soon no longer be the case as the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Guyana (UG) for the Faculty of Social Sciences, Law Department, to commence teaching a prosecutors’ course from March 2022.

The course, titled ‘Advocacy and Evidence for Summary Courts Prosecutors’, is designed to train holders of a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree to prosecute cases in the Magistrates’ Courts, and will see those persons who complete the course joining the State’s prosecutorial arm.

“At the level of the magistrates court, the accused is represented by a trained legal mind and the State is represented by a police officer. The introduction of the graduates of this programme into the prosecution system is intended to address this imbalance,” Nandlall is quoted as saying in the press release from his office.

At the signing of the MoU on Friday, Nandlall handed over a syllabus and lecture manual for the course, prepared by a consultant under the SCJS programme, to Head of the Law Department at UG, attorney-at-law Kim Kyte-Thomas.

Students enrolled in the course will be taught principles of the law of evidence, criminal law and procedure, as well as principles governing all applications and rules relative to criminal proceedings in the magistrates courts. They will also be trained in advocacy and presenting evidence, cross examination and the conduct of preliminary enquiries.

“It is expected that the quality of representation that the graduates will bring will be appreciably superior to that which currently exists. Notwithstanding, I must salute our police prosecutors who, with limited training, have acquitted themselves with distinction in performing that difficult role of prosecuting,” Nandlall said.

The course will also be taught as an optional course at the Law Department after foundational courses in criminal law, legal research and writing, and English 101, have been undertaken; upon completion of which will result in the award of a ‘Summary Courts’ Prosecutors Certificate.’

The course forms part of the initiatives being implemented as part of the US$8 million Support for the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) Programme, which is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and is implemented by the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

It falls under the component of the programme which seeks to reduce the use of pre-trial detention, especially for individuals accused of minor offences, by providing better legal assistance to individuals accused of non-violent offences, and improving the prosecutors’ ability to handle cases according to the seriousness of the offence.

Funding from the SCJS project will finance the cost of training a batch of twenty-five students per semester, who will be hired by the State upon graduation and will eventually replace police prosecutors in the magistrates’ courts.

In August 2021, at the programme’s 2021 mid-year review, Nandlall had disclosed that, at the time, his Ministry had already established contact with over 80 LLB holders, enough to place one of these individuals at almost every magistrate court in the country, who will be part of the programme.

The press release noted that Nandlall thanked the University for accepting the programme in the Law Department and indicated that the time has come for novel initiatives to be pursued in legal training.

Further, he indicated this initiative is historical and will serve a greater audience than prosecutors and students who are reading for their Law Degree and is optimistic that such a course will be emulated in the Caribbean region.

The Attorney General, at the signing, also pledged his support for other initiatives within the Law Department, such as upgrading of a Zoom classroom and acquisition of Law Books.

The signing was also attended by Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr. Paulette Henry; representatives from the SCJS Programme; Indira Anandjit, Project Manager, and Rabindra Kandhi, Procurement Officer, and Chevy Devonish, State Counsel from the Attorney General’s Chambers.

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