Senior Courts Closed for Judicial Training to Tackle Case Backlog with Mediation and Settlement Conferences

The Senior Courts of Belize were closed today, as members of the judiciary were attending a training seminar. Over 80 representatives from the judiciary, including judges, registrars, judicial assistants and members of the Bar Association of Belize, attended the training, which was hosted by the Judicial Education Institute (JEI). Participants were engaged in training on Judicial Settlement Conferences and Criminal Mediation. A judicial settlement conference is a procedure where a settlement judge acts as a mediator for matters assigned to another judge, to resolve the matter without having to go to a full trial. The training was aimed at equipping participants to reduce the backlog of civil cases in the judicial system. The Criminal Mediation training is sponsored by the European Union and the United Nations Programme Development PACE Justice Project. Chief Justice Louise Esther Blenman, who is the president of the (JEI), declared today a dies nun, which is a legal term for a day in which no legal business can be done, to allow for judicial officers to attend the conference. The criminal division of the Belize High Court will be closed from October 2 to October 6, for training of judicial officer.