WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Jamaica’s legal community in the parish of Westmoreland has raised urgent concerns amid emerging reports that the national government is re-evaluating its commitment to repairing and rehabilitating the damaged Westmoreland Parish Court building. Nearly a year after Hurricane Melissa swept through the region in October last year, the ongoing lack of functional court infrastructure has thrown the local justice system into disarray, prompting a formal appeal from practicing attorneys in the area.
In an official statement released to the public Friday, the group of local legal professionals outlined the cascading challenges that have plagued court operations since the storm destroyed the original parish court facility. In the aftermath of the hurricane, all Circuit Court proceedings were forced to relocate to the neighboring parish of Hanover, while remaining parish court business is being run out of severely undersized, inadequate temporary accommodations in Whithorn.
The attorneys emphasized that the current crisis extends far beyond mere inconvenience; it poses a fundamental threat to equal access to justice and public trust in Jamaica’s judicial system. The temporary court spaces suffer from chronic overcrowding, with far too little room to accommodate the growing volume and increasing complexity of legal matters. In many cases, sittings are forced to run well into the night, often extending as late as 9:00 PM or later for court staff and all parties involved.
Most alarmingly, the group noted, hundreds of local parish court cases have yet to go to trial since the hurricane hit, and the growing backlog shows no signs of easing. The disproportionate burden of this breakdown falls heavily on ordinary litigants, many of whom already face financial hardship.
“Many have to travel outside the parish at additional expense, lose workdays, arrange childcare and incur costs they cannot afford simply to access the courts,” the statement read. The attorneys stressed that justice cannot be treated as a luxury reserved exclusively for Jamaicans with the means to pay for delayed proceedings. When access to the courts is undermined, it is the most vulnerable members of the community that are pushed to the margins and left without legal recourse.
Jurors fulfilling their mandatory civic duty also face unfair burdens, the group added. Most are required to travel to out-of-parish court facilities at their own cost just to await selection for trials, creating an unnecessary financial barrier that discourages civic participation. Even practicing legal professionals are not spared from the disruption: attorneys now spend hours each week traveling between courthouses to represent their Westmoreland-based clients, cutting into critical time that should be spent case preparation and client support.
Closing their appeal, the legal fraternity reaffirmed that all residents of Westmoreland are entitled to a justice system that is accessible, efficient, and consistent with the basic dignity of the judicial process. They are calling on national and local authorities to move the restoration of the Westmoreland Parish Court to the top of their priority list, and to publish a clear, binding timeline for the completion of work and the return of full court operations to the parish.