The St. John’s Magistrates’ Court will officially begin sittings at the Grays Green Community Center on Monday 29 April 2019.
Confirmation of this development came from a reliable source who disclosed that all matters will now be heard and dealt with at the court, which has been moved to its temporary location at the Community Center and Sports Facility or “Knuckle Block” as it is popularly known.
Since the beginning of April, only partial services such as processing of child maintenance payments, disbursement of cheques, bail and new cases, and payment of bail and fines were available at the court’s former location, as the staff – as OBSERVER media previously reported were already engaged in preparations for moving to the Grays Green Complex,.
All other matters pending in the system were adjourned and depositions for cases which had to be sent to the High Court were not being processed.
For several months, the staff at the St. John’s Magistrates’ Court had been working half days due to unsatisfactory condition of the building on High and Temple streets.
In December 2018, the workers, through their union, wrote to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Legal Affairs about the situation and gave the authorities three months to relocate the workers.
That period ran out at the end of March this year, but the relocation is expected to be completed on Monday.
This follows the recent relocation of the All Saints Magistrate’s Court to the Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board compound in Herberts, in order to effect repairs to the building in All Saints which had until then housed the court.