Sweep­ing changes are in store that will af­fect the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice in T&T.

The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs (AGLA) is set to pro­claim six key amend­ments to the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings) Act, 2011, (AJI­PA) on De­cem­ber 12, in a move wel­comed by the Ju­di­cia­ry.

“This has been pre­ced­ed by decades of dis­cus­sions, stake­hold­er en­gage­ments, pol­i­cy de­vel­op­ments, leg­isla­tive amend­ments and more re­cent­ly sen­si­ti­za­tion ses­sions in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Ju­di­cia­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” the AGLA said in a re­lease yes­ter­day.

It al­so said the procla­ma­tion of the AJI­PA, which abol­ish­es pre­lim­i­nary en­quiries, would “re­duce case back­log, ease the bur­den on wit­ness­es and sig­nif­i­cant­ly elim­i­nate the wastage of time and re­sources in the dis­pos­al of in­dictable mat­ters.”

“The cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go can now an­tic­i­pate a thor­ough­ly re­formed, high­ly stream­lined, and en­tire­ly op­er­a­tional pre-tri­al sys­tem that has been un­der de­vel­op­ment for sev­er­al decades,” it added.

The changes have been the sub­ject of stake­hold­er dis­cus­sions this week at the Po­lice Acad­e­my Gym­na­si­um, St James and the Wa­ter­front Ju­di­cial Cen­tre.

Among those be­ing ex­posed to how the amend­ments would work are mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, the Le­gal Aid and Ad­vi­so­ry Au­thor­i­ty, the Pub­lic De­fend­ers De­part­ment, the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion, the To­ba­go Lawyers As­so­ci­a­tion, the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre and the Prison Ser­vice.