When introducing a slate of targeted reforms aimed at cutting crippling backlogs and expanding access to remote proceedings, two Barbadian members of parliament have laid bare the widespread, daily injustices facing vulnerable caregivers seeking child maintenance in the country’s magistrates’ courts. Speaking before the House of Assembly, Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight, representative for Christ Church South, and Tyra Trotman, MP for St Michael Central, emphasized that the day-to-day experience of ordinary people accessing the justice system is just as critical a measure of good governance as the passage of landmark national legislation.
Drawing directly on dozens of constituent cases she has encountered through her local constituency clinics, Dr. Munro-Knight detailed the heavy human toll that systemic administrative delays impose on already vulnerable families. She shared that countless young mothers are forced to navigate repeated adjournments that stretch their cases out over months, or even years, at a time. To attend each scheduled court date, these women must take unpaid time off work, arrange emergency childcare for their kids if school is not in session, then wait for hours in court without any updates or explanation from court staff. In one particularly egregious case she is assisting with, Dr. Munro-Knight noted that the mother has endured multiple adjournments and still has not received a satisfactory hearing for her claim.
The MP also highlighted how routine administrative moves for judicial staff create additional unnecessary delays. She recalled one constituent whose case had been stuck in limbo for years after the presiding magistrate assigned to her claim was transferred to a new post. The constituent, she said, was left asking a simple, devastating question: if the original magistrate never returns to the court, does that mean she will never get her day in court? Dr. Munro-Knight added that widespread public dissatisfaction with the current broken system is clear, with most Barbadians summing up the process as fundamentally “not fair.”
Trotman, drawing on her own decades of experience working as a practicing lawyer, expanded on the systemic issues, pointing to inadequate infrastructure and outdated procedural rules that drain time and money from both attorneys and the litigants they represent. She identified the permanent closure of the St Matthias Magistrates’ Court, and the resulting overreliance on overcrowded shared facilities at Oistins, as one of the single biggest drivers of growing backlogs in both criminal cases and child maintenance claims.
Trotman explained that caregivers seeking court-ordered child support often show up prepared for their hearing, only to wait for an entire morning before being told at midday that the assigned magistrate is unavailable. They are then given a new adjourned date, which is typically scheduled two to three months in the future. She also called out longstanding inefficient practices, including longhand note-taking by magistrates and repeated delays waiting for prison transport to transfer inmates, that waste hours of legal professionals’ billable work time every week. “Time is the only thing that we spend in life that we can never get back,” she said, noting that spending entire days waiting for a case to be called erodes overall productivity and leaves litigants disillusioned with the justice system.
Both MPs are throwing their full support behind the proposed reforms, which include expanding the use of virtual remote hearings and implementing digital court recording technology to modernize outdated procedures. While the pair acknowledged that many traditional lawyers prefer to examine witnesses in person, they argued that digital tools can cut down on unnecessary travel, eliminate logistical barriers, and dramatically speed up case processing. Dr. Munro-Knight stressed that virtual proceedings should be made a permanent standard practice rather than a temporary emergency measure, as they were used during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have to drag our court system, our legal system into the 21st century, even if it goes screaming and kicking in many respects,” she said, adding that legislative change alone is not enough – the government must also allocate funding and resources to deploy the required technology across all courts.
The proposed reforms also close a longstanding legal loophole that has delayed thousands of unfinished cases. Under the new rules, magistrates will be allowed to conclude pending matters even after they have been promoted or transferred to a new post, eliminating the need for costly, time-consuming retrials that result from routine administrative moves.
In closing, Dr. Munro-Knight argued that while high-priority issues like national security and major criminal legislation rightly demand government attention, the ability of ordinary people to access timely, dignified justice in the magistrates’ courts remains the ultimate test of a truly responsive, functional democratic society.
