Court walkout looms

Defence attorneys have been placed on alert to pull their services from the island’s courts for an entire week, starting next Monday, a move that will deal a significant blow to the Michaelmas term which began just over a week ago.

The lawyers arrived at the decision after a meeting on Thursday with Justice Minister Delroy Chuck which they say failed to produce any meaningful plans to reform the 2022 Firearms Act.

The emergency meeting was called following Wednesday’s ‘silent protest’ outside the Supreme Court on King Street in downtown Kingston, where members of the Jamaican Bar Association, the Advocates Association in collaboration with Bar associations across the island, armed with placards, demanded that their concerns about the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022 and its impact on “justice, due process and the rule of law” be taken on board for reform.