Updated October 2026. Resident Magistrates' Courts renamed from the 2016 Act; 2023 clearance rates and the 2027 case system added.
In February 2014 Horatio Morgan summarised a study of Jamaica's courts. The courts he examined were the criminal divisions of the Supreme Court and the Resident Magistrates' Courts, the Gun Court, the Family Court and the Coroner's Court. The House of Representatives approved a change of name in February 2016. Those Resident Magistrates' Courts are now the Parish Courts, and the judicial officers are judges of the Parish Courts, under the Judicature (Resident Magistrates) (Amendment and Change of Name) Act. The Jamaica Information Service reported the House vote on 16 February 2016.
The paper is his case study, An Organizational Review of the Informational Management System, written for the regional citizen-security indicators project. A copy is listed on Academia.edu. The 2014 post also pointed to an IOSR PDF at iosrjournals.org.
The study found that the courts' information system was manual, heavily paper-based, and too weak to supply the real-time data the indicators project needed. Morgan's point was that weak data was already affecting how fast and how reliably the courts could work. These were his findings from that review, not a 2026 headcount.
1. Equipment
He reported a general lack of computers and surge protectors, and no database at the Resident Magistrates' Courts for statistical data. Clerks of the courts were not each given a computer, so figures sat in books and court sheets. Too few machines meant clerks could not capture and store the data the courts needed.
The Judicial Enforcement Management System (JEMS) was the application used at the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Justice had already contracted, in 2007, for servers to carry JEMS, an internet portal, a prosecuting-attorney system and a jury system. The Jamaica Information Service reported that contract on 18 June 2007. By 2015, JEMS was in daily use in the Supreme Court registries, which had loaded most of their cases from 2003 onward, according to a Gleaner account on 30 August 2015.
2. Staff
The study said staffing was too thin, with one clerk assigned to a court. That clerk had to collect data and run the court at the same time, including when the list mixed new cases and part-heard cases. No later public headcount was found that confirms or replaces that one-clerk figure, so it stays as a finding of that study.
3. Space
Morgan wrote that many court offices could not take more furniture. Rooms were crowded, and documents were stored wherever space remained. His recommendation was to move offices and fit them with furniture that matched the work.
In June 2026 the Minister of Justice, Delroy Chuck, was still describing parish courthouses with rooms full of paper. The Jamaica Information Service carried that description on 12 June 2026.
4. Training
The study said staff needed to understand why data capture and storage matter, and that Resident Magistrates' Court staff needed training on JEMS. That training gap was real for a system that lived mainly at the Supreme Court.
What the figures show now
The courts do publish case statistics, which the review said they could not produce in real time. The Chief Justice's annual report on criminal matters in the parish courts for 2023 records a case clearance rate of 106.61 per cent, and a net backlog of 2.35 per cent of active cases. The report is on the Supreme Court site. For 2025, Dr Denarto Dennis, a consultant statistician, reported a criminal clearance rate of 103.44 per cent in the parish courts and a net criminal backlog of 2.16 per cent. The Jamaica Observer reported those figures on 20 September 2026.
The Integrated Electronic Case Management System is scheduled to go live on 1 October 2027. The Jamaica Information Service reported that date on 19 August 2026.
Horatio Morgan is the author of that court-statistics study. The 2014 post described him as an education administrator and a certified management analyst, with an interest in indicators and organisational analysis. As of 2014 he had worked in Jamaica's courts for ten years, and from 2010 as a research analyst. A personal email address printed in 2014 is not repeated here.
Updated October 2026
- Present-tense claims from the 2014 post ("the system is manual", "one clerk is assigned") are dated to the study. The one-clerk figure is not restated as a current fact.
- Resident Magistrates' Courts are updated to Parish Courts via the 2016 JIS report. Clearance and backlog figures are from the 2023 Chief Justice report and the Observer, 20 September 2026.
- JEMS is sourced to the 2007 JIS contract note and the 2015 Gleaner account. The October 2027 case system is from JIS, 19 August 2026.