Chief Justice Carl Singh said last week that the response to advertisements for suitably qualified persons for the position of project manager of the court has been very 'low key'.

"We have certainly not received a flood of applications," admits Singh.

The project manager will be working under the Office of the Chief Justice, the implementing agency for the project.

The current vacancy notice for project manager will not be posted beyond February 21, the Chief Justice indicates, so a choice will have to be made from those who have applied.

The chosen individual will be responsible for the administration and execution of the commercial court and a commercial Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system mechanism.

The court is to sit in the High Court within the existing physical structure but having a project manager to oversee the project will be key to the start-up of the project.

The establishment of a commercial court and an ADR mechanism is being supported with technical assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The IDB last year approved a non-reimbursable technical co-operation grant of US$500 000 for the project. The Guyana government is providing US$50,000.

The court and the ADR are expected within three years to achieve a 20% reduction in the backlog of commercial cases before the High Court.

Justice Singh estimates the current backlog between 8,000 to 9,000 cases but does not say what portion of these were commercial cases. The IDB had estimated the backlog at 11,000 cases and had quantified a third of these as commercial. Roughly 40 to 50 per cent of the backlog is abandoned cases, which will be eliminated from the system, Justice Singh indicates.

Justice Singh notes that these cases were abandoned because the plaintiffs might have died, migrated or simply lost interest in the case.

He says the next step in the project once a court manager is appointed will be to appoint a Steering Committee which will include a wide cross section of society, and to appoint the sitting judges for the court. Groups slated to be a part of the committee are religious bodies, trade unions, banks and the Bar Association among others. The judges (to be selected from those available) and the committee are expected to be appointed early this year.

This committee will listen to the concerns of the litigants and make representations to the court based on those concerns.

Singh describes a commercial court as a specialised one designed to deal effectively with commercial matters. He also explains this was essential for foreign investors.

The court should provide quicker processing of commercial matters. Present delays in commercial cases are sometimes caused by applications for adjournments, liberally granted by judges. However, this court is not going to be independent of the High Court and will operate within the existing court system and court rooms. A 40% reduction is expected in the time taken to resolve commercial cases.

It is further anticipated that over 200 disputes will be resolved per year by the second year of the ADR mechanism's life. The chief justice did not say when the court would commence but says efforts are underway for this to be done in an orderly manner. It had been anticipated that the commercial court would start sometime in the first half of this year.

In the Stabroek Business, November 2003 issue Justice Singh noted that the quickest way to start up the court would be for the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Desiree Bernard, to issue a practice direction.

A 'practice direction' would detail the list of matters to fall within the jurisdiction of the court, as well as the rules of procedure for the management and administration of such commercial matters.

The commercial court is expected to deal with banking issues and contracts within the commercial community, as well as trade issues among other matters of commercial interest.