Two murder trials were adjourned in the Supreme Court last week because a malfunctioning air conditioning system made conditions unbearable.

Although the system was eventually fixed, Bar Association President Elsworth Johnson said, "It's a perennial problem that's endemic to the system that results in a waste of precious judicial time".

"It's unfair to the victim, unfair to the defendant and it does not advance or assist in the administration of justice."

Johnson pointed out that simple infrastructural problems contribute to the inefficiencies that the much talked about Swift Justice program is supposed to address.

Last year Court of Appeal President Anita Allen and her fellow justices were unable to hear cases because the court's perennially leaking roof was finally under repair.

Last month sewer problems at the multimillion-dollar Magistrates Court Complex on South Street, which houses 12 courts, forced adjournments until the matter was resolved.

Johnson said that judges and magistrates work at "great sacrifice to themselves" and the very least the government could do is provide them with a comfortable working environment.

Johnson said the judiciary should not be beholden to the executive and its attendant red tape and should control its own budget, noting that the judiciary does not appear to be a priority given the state of its facilties. In addition to structural deficiencies, the judiciary is also plagued by understaffing. Johnson said steps need to be taken posthaste to address the problems in the court system if the country is to be taken seriously in the financial services sector, the country's second biggest industry.

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