New Court Building, Restitution and Family Mediation 

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, January 15, 2023 – A new court building for North Caicos and more out-of-court resolution options for the entirety of the TCI are on the docket to be completed this year.  The announcements were made by Chief Justice Mabel Agyemang during the Legal Year Opening held at the Supreme Court Annex on January 4th.

North, Middle, and South Caicos have been without their own courts for years and Agyemang said because of the rising number of cases being brought from these areas it was time for them to have their own physical buildings.

“The statistics bear me out.  In 2022, South Caicos heard a total of 78 cases, and North Caicos, 48 cases.  These numbers are sizable for places with only periodic court sittings, hence the need for court buildings.” she said.

“I am happy to announce that the retrofitting of the North Caicos Magistrate’s Court by the Ministry of Infrastructure has been completed.  It remains for the Judiciary to provide the needed courthouse furnishing which is going through the procurement process.  When this is done – which we hope will be quite soon – we hope to commission the building for the use of the Magistrate as a courthouse.”

In addition to that out-of-courtroom dispute settlement options including mediation were introduced in the Turks and Caicos in 2022 in an effort to help the community and clear the court roster of cases that could be settled elsewhere, this year two more options are being added to the list: restorative justice and family mediation.

The justice system laid the groundwork for restorative justice which aims to encourage meaningful engagement between victims and offenders in 2022 and the program will be rolled out in earnest this year.

Agyemang explained what it aimed to do.

“It employs a reparative approach to criminal justice by emphasizing the repairing of harm caused to victims and persons impacted by crime, without sacrificing the accountability that should accompany the commission of crime.”

The training for this which deals with criminal offenses was more selective and the facilitators trained were primarily people with experience in the Criminal Justice system.

Her Ladyship did not go into detail regarding family mediation but said facilitators had been trained for that as well and the service would begin to be provided shortly.

The upgrades mean faster restitution for citizens across the country, a welcome improvement.