Joe Issa Backs Rastas on First Fixing Court System before Debating Pros and Cons of CCJ

Executive Chairman of Cool Group Joe Issa, says he agrees with the position taken by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

The RMC, in a recent Gleaner article, opposed Jamaica’s full participation in the CCJ on the grounds that “the court system here needs to be repaired …the process is slow… it has one of the worst backlog of cases, the infrastructure is poor and does not inspire confidence,” says its Consultant Maxine Stowe.

She pointed to her own experience with the estate of her late, well-known uncle, Clement ‘Sir Coxone’ Dodd, whose estate is still not distributed 11 years after his death, during which three family members have died.

 I stand by the Rastafari Millennium Council in their position on the CCJ, it makes perfect sense to me, that we should first fix or better our local court system at home before we can begin to debate the pros and cons of the CCJ in its appellate jurisdiction, which will see it replacing the Privy Council as our final court of appeal,” says Issa.

Issa, who has built the Cool brand of over 50 companies, says he is cognizant of the challenges Jamaican businesses have endured through crime and violence on workers and assets, with some cases never getting to the courts because of extortion and corruption, which scares victims, who seemingly have no chance of getting redress, while continuing to pile up cost of protection on which a whole security sector has been built out of necessity.

“If both poilitical can’t control our unacceptable level of crime and violence and develop a local court system that is clean, swift and effective to the point of being without reproach, how are we going to have a higher court system that is better… one that has something to emulate and be influenced by.

“Moreover, for a case to get to the CCJ, it must first pass through our local court system, which puts the case together, tries it and dispenses justice, and only if justice is seen as having been denied, then it goes to the CCJ, which will then rely on the local court’s quality and credibility… of preparation, evidence, witnesses, etc., and that, in a sense, could mean garbage in, garbage out,” says Issa.

There’s another point to be made, Issa says, and that is, the people who work in our local court system have nothing to smile about… to be proud of; the buildings and other facilities and conveniences are uninspiring and de-motivating; the process is slow and thwart with errors that compromises swift justice.

Like the RMC, Issa says he is not questioning the integrity of the judges here and in the region “nor am I fearful of political interference, I just think we have too much to fix in our local court system to take on more, let’s just substantially improve or fix what we have, get it running reasonably well before we can debate the pros and Cons of the CCJ as our final court.”