VIEW: Crimes most Jamaicans commit punishable in the COURTs

There are two popular crimes most Jamaicans commit -which are punishable in the Court, or can it be that some persons in the system need to themselves be put on trial and thrown out for fear of giving a corrupt impression of the Jamaica Legal system.
Still, there is the one crime which is simply not knowing the law, the other is being too poor and destitute to even be entitled to your right to defend yourself and to be taken seriously. At the Resident Magistrate level, you get intimidated, and if you are not careful you find yourself admitting to a whole fabricated rung, and punished on spot — a punishment lasting a lifetime, because the initial effect never wears.
You never know till you land yourself in court how big a deal it is not knowing the law. In some instances the worse thing that could ever happen to a Jamaican is being financially challenged, or worse poor and destitute without funds or favour.. then it hits you like a brick when you suddenly try to defend yourself in a court matter.
It weighs on you more like a tonne of bricks if you are a defendant and it matters not that you just might be innocent.

Been there

I have been there and almost like de ja vu am there again, victimised by a landlord then – and a wanna be landlord now. Then the Resident Magistrate Marlene Malahoo-Forte ignored the law and the facts – conducting a circus. The then landlord with malicious intentions for not getting some p, further damaged my possessions he had no business even disturbing. His case begins with lies about my not paying him any rent, when the company I worked for paid him by check even before they considered me THE EARNER, to give me my share to buy my daily morsel of bread.
He further charged illegal fees for illegal cable which I wind up paying to avoid contention with a starving Jamaican.

A lawyer’s good then?

So now.. you wonder if I had a lawyer how could I not win.
Well little did I know about the games some attorneys play with their clients. My then attorney Leslie Campbell was perhaps on a political campaign – apparently I was the only one among peers without even any suspicions…
MY OFFENCE: I didnt know the law, I didnt know money was this particular attorney’s priority. So I had paid the attorney the full money he asked for before the case began, and I just didnt know he just wasnt in to me, my side or my case that stood ground.
How can a man carry you to Court for owing monies you clearly didnt and win on that grounds, when no MONEY was owed, not then, not now because he refused to give a letter to stop my employer from paying him, and even after the case was collecting monies from my company FROM my salary. Dont imagine the effects – it was not nice. However, the attorney so learnt had prejudices and clearly caught up in a culture of his own – after I replied to him that I didnt throw away underwear the landlord had tampered with after he removed them from the line without permission. How that connected with the entire case is bEYOND me?

So there I was a victim of my own ignorance .. not knowing the law, not knowing the games played out at times in courts. I mean everything gets discussed according to the gospel of a ‘elderly man’ who simply wanted to get back at the owner of the p he wanted, could not get.. and believe it or not in the then court of law.. the realities of the situation, but more critical the laws of Jamaica was the very last thing introduced or applied.
The ruling was said to be on a balance of probabilities, and I still wonder how… as there was no opportunity for probabilities for me, as evidenced in the noted. Yes it is all online, despite the effects on my life, and how I have sought for it to be removed esp now with new ppl making improper references.
According to whose? gospel and whose? law.. the then Judge Malahoo-Forte who continually uttered that “I wonder” claimed she did not believe my side. Its a continued lesson I did not relate to that at the Resident Magistrate court elderly people can get away with anything.. but thats for another article.AND I am sure she will find herself in a similar position if for nothing else, to understand what she has put me through and continues to.
Jamaicans are WARPED minded and the Court mess with one’s life not realising the impact of their actions for a lifetime. BUT I am there as in a current case, the attorney is now making references unfounded. The case did go to the appeal Court, and ….. Stupid me, I had a few good landlords who were old.. caring , decent, fair, with principles.. but then lately I am falling for the ugly or can it be that decency and truth doesnt exist among the elderly people anymore….

Inconsistencies
With several inconsistencies in his presentation then, I wonder how that old man’s claim was accepted believable and my counterclaim for damage to my possession was not accepted, especially after he admitted to destroying my possessions – he was actually making out permission and of course sympathy reigned over good critical thought. I LEAVE HIM TO THE ALMIGHTY for destroying my property and lying about it in Court.

Appeal

The case went to appellate court and thrown out as there the gods there thought the matter was trite, THAT I learnt later. It’s a case on the web to be read so I am sure I cannot be held for anything, but speaking out of the abuse of the Jamaican court. I am learning that they make the party who will suffer more win.. but who is the judge— how can an elderly person fabricating a story to secure a win.. be seen as the one who would have suffered more.

The lawyer abandoned me for a sudden high profile case, perhaps it was the highest in the land at the time — little did I know as I am telling you the reader, that you dont have to yield to pressure to start a case.
So again three learned judges looked down on me because they themselves are ignorant of the field – then it was journalism and how and what journalists would do. No reference was bring even Barbara Gayle, who frequent the courts as a journalist to question, but did they?
Judges should know or research field and matters.. that way they will rule properly, effectively if not sufficiently.

10 years later

Anyway, its almost 10 years later. I’ve learnt of the sufferings of that elderly man from neighbours and I am almost felling enough sympathy, but I dare not be soft heated to him again – ANOTHER CRIME.
Another case, bearing no similarity, and I am back in court by a landlord wanna be. The attorney, CSB (name temporarily unlisted) is promoting a fabricated story, and worse chooses to make references to that earlier case. It could not have been worse! I repeat no similarities and seriously flawed in their complaint to the Court. The sublimal message — elderly people can get away with anything in Jamaican Court… at the peril of the so called younger person who is seen as trying to ‘take advantage’ of these tricksters.. but enough for now.. let’s await the outcome.

Strategies of unscrupulous Jamaican attornies determined to win

It dawns on me that an entire section should be dedicated to unscrupulous actions of Jamaican attornies in their quest to win at any cost.

The CSB attorney character brings a print out of the earlier case and a statement about what she assumes and wants to push as my behavioural pattern. Adding injury to deep wounds, she brings a website maliciously created against me by someone who did not get me to do illegal activity for them to make money.. but that’s for another court.. for now I have the relevant authority on my side – having done their due investigation.
The purpose of the gospel of CSB – to influence the Resident Magistrate that I am a person of low character. So there she is a case that began as an illegal and invalid matter with no correct legal standing.. applying her own legal claim as an attorney plus her ‘advantage’ of representing an elderly woman — pushing the practise of anything said by them to be gospel. Interestingly I have found out that they both are supposedly Christians I wonder what the outcome would be.

The world is warped.. that lies are passed as truth, and truth presented in its simplest form is not to be believed.. We have become a mad society.. no wonder the increasing levels of crime.

This is the court system of Jamaica. The first matter is all on the internet for you to read and see for yourselves, so who can blame me for adding my bit on my site.

I wonder therefore why we have so much crime of a different colour – violence, murder, assault, wounding. Don’t you? Well it begins with ignorance of the law, the first crime that needs to be eradicated. So I busy myself with the International Legal Document Centre to assist average Jamaicans from being punished. The first lesson is civil court should be a place where cases are ruled on a balance of probability where in criminal cases the plaintiff must prove his case beyond doubt and it is for the defendant to prove otherwise or just try to reduce punishment.

So ignorance is no excuse

Turns out ignorance is no excuse, especially in Court. Above all maxims learn that most importantly where you are poor in pocket, dont be poor in mind. There is hardly any lawyer willing to go pro bono to assist or save a dying member of the public where persons are frustrated to take justice therefore in their own hands and the world is left to … wonder….

Still I wonder, how for so long the judges and magistrates will rule as gods on mostly facts as distorted as they are presented .. why is there a need for court therefore if law is hardly ever seem to be applied. Let alone the elderly persons can come and tell lies believed as gospel and persons with even a plea of innocence cant be taken seriously because of age.. God forbid!

NOTE: Because I respect at least two Jamaican attorneys, I’ll quickly add that this does not categorise the entire legal system…

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Anthea

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