Bermuda's justice system has come under increasing attack in recent years with complaints about weak juries, inefficient, overcrowded courts and delayed trials. In the first in an occasional series, spoke to Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser to see what the problems are and what can be done to solve them.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser has called for radical measures to reduce court backlogs, which can see defendants waiting months or even years for trials.

Suggestions include pre-trial conferences, state-funded defence lawyers, more court buildings and the abolition of preliminary hearings.

He said he was concerned about long trial delays and the problem was getting worse.

"I am hoping with (new Chief Justice) Richard Ground coming here we can sit down together and see how best we can work our way through the problems of delay in trials. It is of concern to me."

He said the longer trials were delayed, the more likely witnesses will forget some of their evidence.

"The case becomes stale. We try our best to get them into court as quickly as we can, especially those who are remanded in custody, but the reality is that while we have ten indictments a month (about 120 a year), about 80 go to trial. We don't do more than about 15 or 20 trials a year.

"There is a backlog building up and certainly it's of great concern to me but the way out seems to be to have more criminal courts. Unfortunately there are only two with jury facilities."

He said if a trial lasted weeks and weeks it meant other cases would have to be held in the remaining empty courtroom, leading to bottlenecks.

"The second problem is because the criminal bar consists of a small group of lawyers, many of them are held up in court in lengthy trials, so other trials they are involved in have to be adjourned.

"In relation to the Supreme Court it's difficult not to expect the client to have the counsel of his choice, although it's not a right they have under the Constitution.

"One of the proposals I have thought about is having legal aid lawyers ? lawyers employed like Crown prosecutors only they would be defence lawyers.

"If there is no lawyer available at the practicing bar then one of the lawyers from the legal aid commission would fill in.

"In most countries you have a legal aid commission where there are lawyers employed by the Government, paid a similar government salary to crown prosecutors, who defend people.

"The next problem is we don't have pre-trial conferences.

"In Australia, which is very advanced in its criminal justice system, they have pre-trial hearings where issues of inadmissibility of evidence, procedural irregularities are all heard well before the actual trial and settled by the judge. It's not necessarily the same judge who does the trial.

"That expedites a lot of trials and saves a lot of trial time. That legislation is not available in Bermuda. I am very keen to see it done. But it's not in my hands. I have suggested it."

He said he would lobby Mr. Ground on the need for this change.

Another bottle neck is the lack of a properly functioning court recording system, said the DPP.

Microphones were installed in Supreme Court in 2001 and the hi-tech system, which cost a six-figure sum, has been ready since May 2002, but has never been used properly.

Instead the judges' notes, taken down in longhand, are still the official record. The procedure slows the flow of cases and means lawyers also have to make notes.

Mr. Ratneser said: "We have a voice recording system in place but unfortunately we don't have the manpower and the facility to transcribe those proceedings and make that the official document.

"Of course it is an expensive exercise and it is up to the Government to decide their priorities.

"Recording goes on, but nothing happens."

He said Chief Justice Austin Ward had yet to bless the system as being the official court record because of manpower issues.

"We need more courts and judges with criminal experience to expedite these trials."

Currently there are four judges, including the Chief Justice, backed up by two temporary judges, but more are needed said Mr. Ratneser.

He said most adjournments were requested by the court or defence counsel.

"The Crown very rarely seeks adjournments," he said.

"We have arranged with the Police that we will bring forward trials to save court time and, if need be, cancel leave for Police officers in order to be in court. But it doesn't eliminate the problem."

Getting civilian witnesses to cancel vacations was more difficult and some didn't come even when they were on the Island.

"We have very good cooperation with the Police, absolutely no problems at all. There are the odd fellows who won't turn up to Magistrates' Court for a traffic case or something."

Mr. Ratneser said lack of staff in his department was a problem.

"We have asked for more staff and funding for next year and I am told my application has had a very sympathetic hearing from the Government and they are only too willing to help.

"We are after an increase of three more Crown counsel, bearing in mind we are taking over all the prosecutions from Police."

Police prosecutions will soon merge with the DPP's office, eliminating problems in accessing files.

"All that will get streamlined in a new computer system. The project is almost in its last stages. Hopefully later this year we will formalise that arrangement."

Crown counsels were expected to be computer-literate, said Mr. Ratneser, but paperwork was not being handled as efficiently as it could be because of antiquated court practices.

He said the elongated legal paper lawyers used couldn't be faxed.

"No one uses it. We should use modern day paper, A4."

"There are a number of rules for the Supreme Court and they need to be modernised. The time has come were we should be able to do things electronically. We should be able to log documents that way."

He said streamlining of Supreme Court rules could eliminate unnecessary paperwork.

Mr. Ratneser defended the jury system but said there was a case for having a judge sitting with a panel of experts for fraud trials or several judges.

This suggestion received support from others spoke to including Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz and Bermuda Bar Council President David Kessaram.

Mr. Ratneser said a similar system operated in Fiji where experts were selected according to the nature of the trial.

"Whether this would be acceptable to the community I don't know."

He said there was a danger juries would acquit because they didn't understand complicated financial cases.

"I still support the jury system, but with certain modifications in relation to cases that require not the expertise of the 12 men who walked off the Clapham bus but people who have a little more insight into the workings of commercial life."

But he was against a time limit for cases to go to trial.

He suggested Bermuda should copy Western Australia, where preliminary hearings had been abolished. Such hearings are held at the request of defence lawyers for magistrates to decide if there is sufficient evidence to go to trial.

"There really is no need for it. England had done away with most of it. Lots of other countries have done away with it completely.

"You go straight to the Supreme Court, so all the delay in Magistrates' Court has been taken away. In Bermuda, the accused is entitled to a preliminary hearings, you get clogged up in the magistrate for six to eight months."