Chief Justice Bryan Sykes says plans are afoot to develop training programmes for officers in leadership roles in the Judiciary of Jamaica under its recently launched strategic business plan for 2024-2028.

The Court Administration Division (CAD) and other sector players will facilitate training programmes aimed at judges, registrars, board administrators, and supervisors to help them strengthen their skills and abilities in managing the country’s courts. This is anticipated to roll out by 2025.

Sykes at the official launch of the strategic plan on, April 1, said the CAD will also see structural changes to better serve internal stakeholders.

“The CAD was established to provide corporate services to the courts. In addition to moving into a new building in a few weeks in New Kingston, you will begin to see the consequence of that in terms of the staffing structure. We will have more persons… to address the needs of the courts and the judges in a timely way, and so that is something that will be emphasised in the new strategic planning period,” he pointed out.

In a post-ceremony interview, the Chief Justice informed that the leadership of the courts will also benefit from training opportunities available through the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and other entities to ensure they are properly equipped to carry out their mandate.

“What we’re seeking to do is to find out what courses they have that we can benefit from. Because you know, the military, they’ve spent a lot of time and effort on training, and leadership in one sense is generic, but you tailor it to the specific needs of the organisation,” he told JIS News.

Sykes noted that one area of interest is building the strategic thinking capabilities of judges and other officers of the courts to be better able to give input on matters of national importance.

“We have to get our judiciary and our [officers] thinking in those terms so when we hear, for example, Portmore is to become the newest parish, as a judiciary, we have to think what that means. What is the likely population? What legal services are they likely to need? What size courts should be there? What of cases are expected to be there and so on, to begin to develop a plan so that if and when that becomes a reality, while the process is going on, we have our say as well,” added Sykes.