New judge installed on Sint Maarten

August 17, 2012 11:03 AM

PHILIPSBURG - Friday afternoon the new resident Judge Tamara Tijhuis was installed at the Courthouse for the  the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten, and of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.

Tijhuis (36) was installed during an extraordinary sitting of the Joint Court. Among the audience were newly appointed Chairman of Parliament Rodolphe Samuel, Acting Governor Reynold Groeneveldt, and Dean of the St. Maarten Bar Association Remco Stomp. Minister of Justice Roland Duncan was not present.
 
Tijhuis was appointed by caretaker Kingdom Minister of Safety and Justice Ivo Opstelten on June 25. She started working as a criminal judge at the Court of First Instance as per August 1.
 
She was born in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and studied law in Amsterdam. She graduated in 2002, and joined the Court in Haarlem in 2009.
 
Joint Court President Hoefdraad seized the opportunity to inform the audience, mainly consisting of lawyers and other workers in the judiciary of the Joint Court's efforts to simplify court procedures for small claims, as well as a new lawyers' ordinance.