Gazetting of the Civil Procedure Rules

Tuesday July 22, 2014

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE NCB (SOUTH)
TOWERS
2 OXFORD ROAD
KINGSTON 5
JAMAICA
TELEPHONE: 906-4923-31

PRESS RELEASE

Gazetting of the Civil Procedure Rules

The Ministry of Justice wishes to correct the inaccurate information in a story carried in the Daily Observer dated July 22, 2014, captioned “Civil Procedure Rules not gazetted, says lawyer”.

That article stated the following:  “attorney Hugh Wildman claimed yesterday that the Judicature (Rules of Court) Act, more commonly known as the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 2002, was not gazetted and as a result is not binding.”  The article further reported that Mr. Wildman, on July 7, 2014, wrote to the Chief Justice, the Hon. Mrs Justice Zaila McCalla, informing her that he had checked with the Government Printing Office and was informed that the Civil Procedure Rules 2002 were published by a private company, the Caribbean Law Publishing Company, and not gazetted.

The Ministry wishes to assure the public that these assertions are unfounded, incorrect and misleading.

The Interpretation Act states that all regulations made under any Act or other lawful authority and having legislative effect shall be published in the Gazette (Section 31), and that where such publication is required, a notice in the Gazette stating where the notice has been published and can be bought or viewed is sufficient to bring the law into effect (Section 60). The Civil Procedure Rules 2002 were duly published in accordance with section 60 as L.N. 2/2003 in the Jamaica Gazette Proclamations Rules and Regulations.  This method of complying with the statutory publication requirements is standard procedure when it comes to very large documents such as the Civil Procedure Rules.

Furthermore, section 2 of the Interpretation Act defines “Government Printer” as the Government Printer of Jamaica and any printer purporting to be the printer authorized by Government to print Acts and regulations.  Caribbean Law Publishing Company was duly authorized by the Government to print and publish the Civil Procedure Rules 2002. 

Accordingly, the Civil Procedure Rules are indeed lawful. They have been in full force and effect since their inception, and remain so today.

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Click here to view Civil Procedure Rules  CPR-Gazette-publication

Contact:
Damian Wilson
Senior Public Relations Officer
Ministry of Justice
NCB (South) Towers
2 Oxford Road
Kingston 5
Tel: 906-4923-31
e-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.moj.gov.jm