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Preliminary enquiries to be abolished, expected to reduce case backlog

Loop News

December 8, 2023 6:39 PM ET

2 mins read

The Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act, 2011 (AJIPA) and its six amending Acts will be proclaimed on December 12, 2023.

The Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs said the proclamation of the AJIPA, which abolishes preliminary enquiries, will create sweeping changes to the functioning of the Courts and the dispensation of justice.

Anticipated improvements include a reduction in case backlog, an ease in the burden on witnesses and a significant curtailing in the wastage of time and resources in the disposal of indictable matters.

“The citizens of Trinidad and Tobago can now anticipate a thoroughly reformed, highly streamlined, and entirely operational pre-trial system that has been under development for several decades,” the Attorney General’s Office stated.

The development follows decades of discussions, stakeholder engagements, policy developments, and legislative amendments.  

More recently, sensitisation sessions in collaboration with the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago were held, beginning on December 4 at the Police Academy Gymnasium.

The sessions continue daily at the Waterfront Judicial Centre for the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority, the Public Defenders Department, the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago, the Criminal Bar Association, the Tobago Lawyers Association, the Trinidad and Tobago Forensic Science Centre and the Trinidad and Tobago Prison Service.