During an Editors' Forum Tuesday on justice reform at The Gleaner's North Street offices, downtown Kingston, human rights lobbyists and legal minds said century-old procedures needed to be expunged from the system in short order.

Justice Hugh Small, who chaired the forum, told the gathering that some of the current structures and procedures were more than 150 years old and Walter Scott, attorney-at-law, recommended that some of the archaic practices be abolished.

"We need to get rid of those antiquated things. You need to have more judges," said Scott.

"We operate in a system that was in existence before Hugh's [Justice Small's] father was on the high court bench.

"So, for example, we have a long vacation between the end of July and the 15th of September when the Supreme Court basically locks down, apart from emergency matters," Scott said.

He continued: "At that time, our judges needed to take a steam ship to go back to England for their vacation and come back; we don't need that any more."

Devon Yetman, chairman of human rights lobby group, Jamaicans For Justice, said there was a view that some players in the system had been resisting moves to modernise the justice system.

"There is a problem of administration. There is a perception that the system is rather antique and is resistant to change," he said. (Jamaica Gleaner)