The Honourable Attorney General in consultation with the Honourable Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Satnarine Sharma appointed a Family Court Committee comprising the following members:

The Committee recommended and the Judiciary of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago with the support of the Executive jointly decided that there should be a well resourced pilot Family Court in Port of Spain and that:

1. the pilot Family Court should have a unified registry and administration and should deal with matters in the High Court Port of Spain and the St George West Magisterial District. It should be in a separate building.
2. intake should be at the one registry and the internal processes of the registry will provide for routing through to the appropriate procedural channel (High Court or Magistracy).
3. the New Family Proceedings Rules 1998 should be used for this court only.
4. a monitoring committee will be appointed. This Committee should comprise members of the judiciary, the administration of the court, the legal profession, the social services and the public. The purpose of this monitoring committee should be to monitor the pilot with a view to recommending amendments to the rules, and to legislation and also with a view to informing the drafting of legislation to create a family court if necessary.
5. the proposed pilot family court should possess many elements of a unified family court including social services and mediation services as part of the court's structure.
6. that a bill be laid before Parliament to amend the Supreme Court of Judicature Act to increase the number of High Court Judges by three; from twenty to twenty three.
7. that the other staffing of the Family Court be referred to the Public Management Consulting Division of the Ministry of Public Administration for comments after discussion with the Family Court Committee.
8. that the Property and Real Estate Division of the Ministry of Public Administration pursue the continued rental of NIPDEC House in a refurbished condition specially designed to the specifications of the Family Court.

All of the decisions have been implemented.

Introducing Mediation

A Mediation Committee was appointed as a sub-committee to the Family Court Committee comprising the following persons:

This Committee drafted the Bill which culminated in the Mediation Act 2004. This Act provides for the creation and regulation of a mediation profession in Trinidad and Tobago .

Staffing the Court

Cabinet approved the creation of certain temporary posts on the establishment of the Judiciary for the Family Court and certain contract positions also for the Family Court. All contract posts were advertised and short listing and selection committees conducted their tasks in accordance with the Judiciary's policies for selection. This included

• setting of criteria for each post and the weighting of this criteria, which is then approved by the Human Resource Manager.
• interview planning and execution which includes individual marking of each interviewee by each interviewer on a separate interview score sheet.
• Tallying of score sheets by administrative staff
• Telephone contact being made with the selected persons who are those who received the highest aggregate scores without being below the threshold of acceptance as delineated by the selection committee, and the sending letters of offer to selected persons.

Three additional posts of High Court Judges were created and have been filled, thus allowing judges to be assigned to the Family Court.

Monitoring the Pilot

The Monitoring Committee has been appointed by the Honourable Chief Justice and it comprises the following persons:

The Monitoring Committee is being facilitated by an Evaluation Team comprising the following persons:

*The cost of this consultant is facilitated by a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)'s CARICOM Gender and Equality Programme.

About the Building

The Judiciary with the approval of Cabinet, by Lease Agreement dated the 31 st day of November, 2003 and made between the National Insurance Board and the Judiciary agreed to let the building known as “NIPDEC House” to the Judiciary for a term of five (5) years commencing January 1, 2004 for use as a Family Court.

The NIB was desirous of refurbishing the interior and exterior portions of NIPDEC House to bring it to a state of tenantable repair and condition (referred to as “The Refurbishment Works”) and the Judiciary was equally desirous of customizing the internal portions of NIPDEC House to meet the necessary requirements to house a Family Court (referred to as “The Customization Works”). The Cabinet agreed to the execution of these works.

For reasons of expediency and security and to ensure that the Judiciary's needs were met, the NIB resolved to permit the Judiciary to manage both the Refurbishment and Customization Works and appointed the National Insurance Property Development Company Limited (NIPDEC) to be their agent for the Refurbishment Works.

The Cabinet further agreed that the cost of the Customization Works would be financed by a loan provided by the NIB in favour of the Judiciary and the cost of the Refurbishment Works would be for the NIB's account. The actual loan drawn during the project will attract interest at the rate of 8.5 percent per annum to be repaid over a five year period.

The total cost of the project was estimated at $14,886,633.85, the sum of $8,388,297.23 estimated to be drawn on the loan facility by the Judiciary to customize the building for use as a Family Court. It was estimated that the NIB would require the balance of funds $6,498,336.62.to bring the building to a state of tenantable repair. An initial assessment of the costs incurred in this project at this time indicates that the sum of $6,072,997.09 has been expended on refurbishment activities for which the Judiciary had management responsibility, while the cost of customization to be met from the loan facility is $6,278,602.38. (approximately 1.9 million dollars under budget)

There are centralized project costs including professional fees that must be shared between the Judiciary and NIB, as agreed, and these costs will be allocated before bringing the project to final account. These sums have not been included in the expenditure figures presented above, but they are not expected to exceed $800,000.00. The cost of a new elevator has not been included in the costs presented above but the NIB will meet this cost, when the elevator is acquired.

The concept is of a dedicated building which feels less intimidating and which is designed to provide a friendlier and more soothing atmosphere for the handling of family disputes.

Social Services and Mediators are in the same building with accommodation for children and youth to wait while parents or guardians attend Court

Court hearings will be held in conference rooms instead of in courtrooms thus providing a less intimidating hearing environment in order to encourage consensus and resolution.

About the Logo

The Family Court Logo integrates the concept of the support of children by adults, the support of families by the society and the role of the court in this service as depicted by the scales of justice.

About the training in preparation for this court.

The following training was undertaken in preparation for the establishment of the court:

• Mediation Skills for Judges and Magistrates
• Family Court Performance Standards- for Court Staff
• The Role of the Judge in a Family Court for Judges and Magistrates
• Settlement Conferencing – for Judges and Magistrates
• Custody Assessments and Evaluations for Judges and Magistrates
• Custody Assessments and Evaluations for Social Workers
• Handling Disputes where Parties are Unequal for Judges and Magistrates
• Family Economics; Division of Assets and Maintenance Orders
• Issues of Concern in Family Courts for Judges and Magistrates
• Customer Service training for court staff
• Communications Skills training for court staff
• Time Management training for court staff.
• Training on the new Family Proceedings rules for Judges
• Training for Intake Officers/Social Workers/Probation Officers
• Gender Balance in The Caribbean Family
• Hearing the Voice of the Child – for Judges and Magistrates
• Communications Skills –for Judges and Magistrates
• Handling Domestic Violence – for Judges and Magistrates
• Hearing the Voice of the Child – Court Staff
• Handling Domestic Violence Issues – Court Staff
• Orientation to Court Processes for Court staff
• Family Proceedings Rules for Court staff
• Training in pertinent legislation for court staff
• A New Approach- a new vision for court staff
• Making a difference- training for court staff
• The Economic Consequences of Relationship Breakdown
• Team building for Magistrates
• Audio Digital training for Family Court Magistrates
• JEMS IT training for Magistrates.
• Statistical Feedback for Judges, Magistrates and Court Statff
• Court Statistics training for Court Statistician and Statistical Officers
• Job specific training for court staff

About other preparations for the establishment of this pilot

This court pilots several innovations. Among these are the following:

• It is the first court in which both judges and magistrates preside.
• While information technology is far advanced in the Supreme Court, the JEMS Case Management Information Software is now with this court, being utilized for the first time in magisterial matters.
• Audio Digital recording goes live in this court, having been initially piloted in two magistrates court and one civil High Court.
• Customer Service Representatives have been introduced to the court system's operations.
• The Judiciary introduces its new frame relay system for the purpose of linking this court to the Wide area network.
• A dedicated family law library has been created.
• Children and Youth Waiting areas with dedicated trained staff have been designed with age appropriate activities.
• New hardy, non-allergenic, and easier to maintain finishes for court design purposes have been piloted
• New records management systems are being utilized for hard-copy records.
• Mediators are on staff and so are social workers. .
• New workflows have been designed which provide specifically for pro se litigants.

In preparation for the establishment of this court, individual groupings of staff have been developing policies, ethical codes and standards and educating themselves on the diverse areas of their responsibility. In this regard, there has been excellent support and assistance from the University of the West Indies, Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute the National Centre for State Courts, the Canadian International Development Agency and various local NGO's.

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