Against the backdrop of rising gun violence and a crippling backlog of cases in Barbados’ criminal justice system, a top defence attorney has publicly challenged the government’s plan to launch a dedicated firearms court, arguing that targeted investments in the existing judicial framework would deliver faster, more cost-effective progress on both issues.
Defence counsel Shadia Simpson, in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, did not mince words when weighing in on the executive branch’s latest policy proposal to tackle the island’s pressing gun crime crisis. The government has framed the specialized court as a critical intervention to speed up trial proceedings for firearm-related offences, which have contributed to growing public safety concerns across the island. But Simpson argues that the plan misallocates limited public resources at a time when foundational gaps in the current system are the real root of persistent delays.
“I think that a specialisation in court is not necessary at this time,” Simpson stated plainly. While she openly acknowledged that gun violence remains a critical threat to Barbados communities, she pointed out that the jurisdiction already has structural provisions in place to handle serious weapon-related cases. Currently, the island operates eight active criminal courts, with one specifically designated to hear high-stakes matters including murder and firearms charges. “So I personally don’t think that we needed this at this time,” she added.
At the core of Simpson’s critique is the strain that a new standalone court would place on already overburdened judicial support services. She emphasized that most administrative delays that slow case progression do not stem from a shortage of dedicated courtrooms, but rather from understaffing and outdated infrastructure across the system. For example, pre-sentencing reports, which are required to move cases toward resolution, often take months to complete because probation officers are already stretched far too thin across existing caseloads.
“ We already have limited resources, so sometimes the sentencing reports, for example, take an extremely long time to reach the courts because the probation officers are stretched,” Simpson explained. “I just think that the resources could have been allocated better if you wanted to see a more efficient criminal justice system. And I don’t think that necessarily is the best use of resources to establish a specialised gun court at this time.”
Notably, Simpson pushed back on one of the most common critiques of specialized courts: that creating one for gun crimes would open the door to a proliferation of separate tribunals for every high-profile crime category. Citing long-standing successful models across the Caribbean, she noted that jurisdictions like Jamaica have operated specialized gun courts for years, while many other regional systems maintain dedicated drug courts, with no major disruption to their overall legal frameworks. “I personally don’t have a challenge with it. It’s just that to me, if we want to clean up the backlog and we want to address crime, I just think that there are better ways to do it,” she clarified.
One of the most significant practical barriers Simpson highlighted is the ongoing manpower shortage among criminal bar practitioners in Barbados. She warned that launching an additional court without expanding the pool of available defence attorneys and prosecutors would only exacerbate existing delays, rather than solving them. Currently, a small group of criminal lawyers already handle all cases across the eight existing criminal courts; adding another venue would force these already overworked practitioners to split their time across more dockets, slowing proceedings across the board.
“You don’t knock things until you try them, yes, but to me one of the challenges is the fact that again you don’t have the manpower,” Simpson cautioned. “I don’t know if there are going to be prosecutors assigned, but you still have the same handful of attorneys who practise at the criminal Bar who are now going to not only be stretched between the eight existing criminal courts, but now who are expected to also be in these courts as well. So I personally don’t think that it may have the desired results.”
Beyond understaffing, Simpson added that the shift between multiple specialized court venues would add unnecessary logistical complexity to case management, further slowing the delivery of justice. She noted that lawyers are already able to manage mixed caseloads more efficiently when cases are heard at a single venue, rather than forcing practitioners to travel between separate specialized locations throughout the workweek.
Simpson did acknowledge that the sharp rise in gun-related crime across Barbados demands urgent, decisive action from policymakers, and said that the legal community would reserve final judgment until the policy is implemented and its outcomes can be assessed. Still, she argued that addressing foundational gaps in the existing system would have delivered more immediate, sustainable improvements in both case backlogs and public safety.
For example, lower courts across the island still rely heavily on manual, paper-based processes, with no digital transcription of proceedings. Magistrates still write court notes by hand, creating unnecessary delays when records need to be accessed for trial progression. Even with these gaps, Simpson maintains that the existing eight criminal courts are fully capable of handling firearm-related cases more efficiently if they receive adequate targeted funding and support.
“I certainly think the existing framework could handle it,” she said. “For example, we are now waiting in some instances for two to two and a half months to get a pre-sentencing report, and the probation officers are extremely stretched. They’re working with limited resources and they have to service some courts, so we understand the constraints.”
“In the magistrates’ court, for example, we aren’t even to a place where there are transcripts available from the proceedings. You still have magistrates writing by hand. If we had tried to deal with those foundational things first, we could get matters moving through the system a lot faster.”
