New location for AG's office

Mon, Dec 16th 2013, 11:11 AM

The move of the Office of the Attorney General to John F. Kennedy Drive will not create inefficiencies in the administration of justice, according to Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson.
The office's previous location on East Hill Street was within walking distance of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the criminal and civil registries.
It took The Nassau Guardian 15 minutes to drive from the new location on a Sunday afternoon with minimal traffic.
Although the office has two vans and other vehicles to ferry lawyers and witnesses to and from court, fed up lawyers often walked to the office because of long waits for transportation.
However, Maynard-Gibson told The Nassau Guardian yesterday, "Everything is in place to ensure that there will be no problems with transportation."
Citing security reasons, she declined to outline those measures.
Maynard-Gibson said she did not envision a problem with documents being filed on time due to the move.
In an earlier interview, Bar Association President Elsworth Johnson said, "If there were some difficulties at the post office in terms of ferrying lawyers to and from court, and filing documents, we don't want that to be transplanted to [the new location]."
Johnson said necessary steps ought to be put in place to ensure that lawyers get to court on time without having to use their personal resources.
He suggested that arrangements should be made for clerks to file documents "so that distance does not affect the role they have to play as ministers of justice".
Johnson noted that at East Hill Street "lawyers are often scurrying down the hill with their bags in their hands to file something".
"They should not have to use their personal vehicles to do these things. There should be a messenger or courier service put in place so that attorneys don't have to jump in their cars to get things done."
Johnson said lawyers in the Office of the Attorney General provide an invaluable service to the country for which they are overworked and underpaid.

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