One administration for Court and Registry

July 04, 2008 9:52 AM

In anticipation of the Statutory Law Joint Court, the court and the registry are going over into one organization with an integrated administration, in which the executives of the Antillean and Aruban registries will take seat with the presiding judge and the coordinating judges of several islands, mentioned presiding judge Lisbeth Hoefdraad in the foreword of the 2007 annual report.

The integration results in a policy that will be as much as possible pursued in the same manner on all the islands/countries. “The idea is also to change the structure of the registry. The so-called front-office can speak to the public on one central location, and because of this, the different administrative departments can do their work in one back-office and not be disturbed”, said Hoefdraad. The service will this way be improved. A considerable budget is made available from development monies for the training and upgrading of registry employees.

This big transformation process also requires contribution of the employees self. The administration has therefore proposed an employees council that must serve as forum to openly discuss the transformation process. There is also an urgent need for enhancing the financial support of the Court soon, by hiring a controller that improves the financial reporting and organization. Expectations are that such controller can start working within a few months.

The Joint Court of Justice received 23.167 lawsuits and procedures in the Antilles and Aruba last year, of which 22.255 were handled or sentenced by the Court in First Instance as well as in the Court of Appeals. The lawsuits include civil as well as criminal- and administrative cases, appeal procedures like cases of the Supervisory Council on the legal profession.
(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

July 3, 2008