Lawyers have welcomed the Justice System review unveiled in Parliament last month.

However many criminal lawyers The Royal Gazette spoke to had yet to read the report which recommends a raft of reforms.

The Justice System Review Report, carried out by a committee of some of Bermuda's top legal minds, aims to make the system more efficient and clear-up the backlog of cases.

It includes a pledge to set up a commercial division of the Supreme Court, beef up powers of the Magistrate's court, make fine payment easier and protect vulnerable witnesses.

Mark Diel was one lawyer who had the read the report, which he described as a helpful step in the right direction.

However he said, it was ironic that the case of his client Andrew Hall, who spent nearly three years locked up on remand, should be referred to as one of the reasons for change yet Prosecutors were still technically after him.

Hall, who had been accused of drugs smuggling, left Bermuda and fled to his native Jamaica after a judge ruled it was unconstitutional that he should be held for so long without trial. Prosecutors dropped extradition proceedings but have not yet dropped the case.

The report calls for senior members of the bar to volunteer to take criminal defence assignments because there was shortage of defence lawyers.

Mr. Diel said: "I do like the concept of attempting to speed up trials but I am not sure how successful it is going to be with the current Legal Aid.

"What they want is more senior counsel to take more Legal Aid cases."

But he said they would lose out on hundreds of dollars because legal aid paid about half the going rate expected by top lawyers.

He welcomed the call for a dedicated judge for commercial cases but he questioned how many top quality judges would want to come to the Island, as the review said foreign judges could only stay for six years.

The review calls for a Bail Act - as used in the UK - which was also welcomed by Mr. Diel.

Bail objections are usually that the suspect might interfere with a witness, flee the jurisdiction or repeat the offence, said Mr. Diel.

But in Bermuda any argument could be used such as the prosecution thought it had a very good case.

"There is no statutory framework but we are talking about peoples' liberty."

He also said the pledge to adopt Britain's Police and Criminal Evidence Act was a good move.

It sets out the number of hours people can be held in Police custody before being charged.

"It's surprising we don't have something similar here."

He said Bermuda was always quick to pass laws to help with commercial issues but slow when it came to protecting people's rights.

He said he had a client who was locked up for no good reason for three days one Christmas.

Asked to summarise the report he said: "It's fairly non-contentious, let's hope it gets underway."

Defence lawyer Richard Horseman said he welcomed the broad thrust of the review however colleague Larry Scott said he took issue with the idea of tagging offenders, raised by Justice System Review committee chairwoman, Norma Wade-Miller.

She said electronic monitoring would help keep tabs on people who had been released from prison but who still needed to be supervised.

However, Mr. Scott said the idea had been raised before and he had always opposed it because it impinged on civil liberties and could be abused.

He compared it to how the Germans had made Jews wear stars to set them apart during the holocaust.