justice system.

Police Commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay ordered an inquiry after a Magistrate criticised the Attorney General's Chambers for delaying trials because of late paperwork.

But Attorney General William Pearce said witness statements -- which caused delays highlighted by Magistrate Ed King -- were provided by Police.

Mr. Lemay said this week that he would be meeting Mr. Pearce to get to the bottom of the claims.

He said: "I really want to know if there is any substance to that story.

"If the Police are responsible for the delays, then we would want to take the appropriate action to correct it.

"We would really want to look at the whole process, whether it's a single case, a few cases or whether it's an ongoing problem.'' He added: "But to date, my information would not confirm that.'' Mr. Lemay added: "I would have thought if there was a problem, Mr. Pearce would have contacted me and discussed it.

"I will be contacting him to find out whether there is a real problem and -- if so -- how we can address it.'' Mr. King twice in the space of a few days complained about delays in bringing cases before him because papers were not served on accused people in time.

He lashed out first last week and took another swing on Monday after proceedings against a man accused of robbing the Harrington Hundreds supermarket and injuring the co-owner with a machete were delayed for two weeks to allow paperwork to catch up with the case.

ATTORNEY GENERAL AG