New CJ to be named in two weeks

Barbados could have its first female Chief Justice as reliable sources have indicated that a woman is among the applicants in the running for the prestigious office.

In just about two weeks Barbados is expected to have the position filled, less than four years after the last Chief Justice was appointed.

Justice of Appeal Margaret Reifer, Justice Carlisle Greaves and King’s Counsel Leslie Haynes are listed among those seeking to step into the role, reliable sources have said. There were nine applicants.

Current Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham, 71, took up the post in November 2020 and retires on May 15.

Reifer graduated from the University of the West Indies 1980 with her law degree and worked in private practice appearing in association with the late prominent attorney Ezra Alleyne.

She was appointed a judge in 2005 and acted as Justice of Appeal at different points during her legal career. In December 2020 she fully ascended to the Court of Appeal in a career that has now spanned 44 years. At that time she noted the court system was having backlog challenges.

Greaves spent 21 years in the Bermuda Supreme Court before returning to Barbados in 2019. He was admitted to the Barbados Bar in 1988 and initially worked as a prosecutor before becoming a magistrate on the local bench.

He took up the position as magistrate in Bermuda in 1998 and first sat in the Family Court, spending 20 years at that level and as an acting senior magistrate before rising to becoming a judge there.

Upon retirement from the Bermuda bench in 2019 – for which he was praised for his expert handling of serious criminal matters and eliminating the backlog of criminal cases – Greaves returned to Barbados.

The outspoken Greaves upon his arrival, was appointed to the local bench with a similar task of eliminating the country’s stubborn backlog.

Candidate Haynes was admitted to the Bar in 1980 after receiving his legal education at the University of the West Indies and at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. His area of practice are corporate law, insurance law and civil litigation, securities law and estate matters.

The former president of the Bar, as chairman of the National Insurance Board, presided over the transition of the state-owned National Insurance Scheme to the statutory body National Insurance and Social Security Service, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Haynes also chairs the Electoral & Boundaries Commission and presided over the uncharted COVID-19 affected General Election of 2022. In that scenario, hundreds of Barbadians isolated because of suspected contact with COVID-19 positive people and found themselves unable to vote because of the directives issued as a result of the Public Health Emergency.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Judicial Appointments Committee, Sir David Simmons, has recused himself from the process having applied to the Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley to be excused from April 15 to May 17. The former chief justice and attorney general cited conflict of interest based on relationships in “the recent past involving certain of the applicants”. ( AC)