The As­sem­bly of South­ern Lawyers (ASL) is call­ing on Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie to ur­gent­ly in­ves­ti­gate and ad­dress a mould is­sue at the San Fer­nan­do High Court that has re­sult­ed in at­tor­neys falling ill.

In a let­ter to Archie yes­ter­day, ASL pres­i­dent Michael Rooplal raised two oth­er is­sues, in­clud­ing arrange­ments for in-per­son ju­ry tri­als and the un­fin­ished San Fer­nan­do Dis­trict Mag­is­trates’ Court build­ing.

He said, “Sev­er­al of our mem­bers have com­plained about feel­ing un­well while con­duct­ing in per­son civ­il tri­als at cer­tain court rooms with­in the San Fer­nan­do High Court build­ing.

“In one in­stance, the pre­sid­ing judge re-sched­uled a tri­al when it be­came known to her that there may be a mould is­sue in the par­tic­u­lar court room. In an­oth­er in­stance, an­oth­er judge ex­pressed dis­qui­et about con­duct­ing a tri­al with­in the build­ing giv­en the con­cerns ex­pressed about mould there­in.”

Re­quest­ing that the Ju­di­cia­ry ur­gent­ly in­ves­ti­gate and ad­dress this is­sue, he added, “We are sure that the Ju­di­cia­ry ap­pre­ci­ates that the health and well-be­ing of not on­ly le­gal prac­ti­tion­ers are at stake, but al­so those of lit­i­gants and mem­bers of the Ju­di­cia­ry’s staff.”

The As­sem­bly, he said, has al­so been ap­proached by a num­ber of crim­i­nal law prac­ti­tion­ers con­cern­ing arrange­ments for the con­duct of in-per­son ju­ry tri­als in San Fer­nan­do.

He added that the ASL is al­so open to a meet­ing with the Ju­di­cia­ry to dis­cuss these is­sues.

“While the un­der­signed has been in­volved re­cent­ly in two in-per­sons ju­ry tri­als at the San Fer­nan­do High Court build­ing, oth­er prac­ti­tion­ers have not been as for­tu­nate,” he said.

He said prac­ti­tion­ers have com­plained about the cur­rent sys­tem where­by all stake­hold­ers must trav­el to the O’Meara Ju­di­cial Cen­tre for tri­als.

He added that ASL mem­bers are al­so re­quest­ing an up­date on the new San Fer­nan­do Dis­trict Court build­ing at the cor­ner of Irv­ing and Sut­ton Streets.