(Barbados Nation) With a backlog of over 3 000 court cases, Chief Justice Marston Gibson believes that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) may be the only solution to this long-standing judicial ailment.
Delivering the feature address at the Barbados Workers’ Union 71st Annual Delegates Conference at Solidarity House yesterday, the Chief Justice stated that ADR was not a luxury but a necessity for the judicial system. He explained that ADR comprised a number of alternative dispute resolution modalities, including mediation and arbitration.
“It is a matter of survival for our system,” he stated.
Providing statistics of cases before the courts, he said there were between 1 700 and 2 000 new cases filed in the courts annually. In addition, there were 362 which were still undecided, some dating back to as far as 1993, and over 3 000 cases in the backlog.