Declaring that the application before it was hopeless, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has rejected a bid by a sister to appeal a case against her brother pertaining to a property, citing delays.
In its ruling, the CCJ said that the systemic delays in the case show a long history of counsel errors, which led the Applicants to change lawyers more than once.
“Courts rightly are tending increasingly to insist on high standards from counsel. Misunderstanding by counsel of the time limit for filing a Notice of Appeal is not considered a good reason for extending a time limit. An attorney’s ignorance of the rules will rarely, if ever, provide a good reason for failing to comply with them. Errors that cause inexcusable or reprehensible delay may amount to professional misconduct. We acknowledge that minor infractions which do not prejudice the other parties, the timeliness of the resolution of the dispute and the administration of justice need not always result in turning away litigants from the seat of justice. But, in this case, the breach of time standards is not trivial: the delay is inordinate”, the CCJ declared.