Senior Magistrate is Acting Master of the High Court

For the second time in one year, Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett has been temporarily elevated to be an Acting Master of the High Court.

The Senior Magistrate was first elevated in January of this year to serve as an Acting Master of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC). He was meant to serve in this position between January 11 and February 12, as directed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC), but he ultimately ended up taking on the role for much longer.

Therefore, the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, where he normally presides as Senior Magistrate, sat for the first time for 2019 on June 3.

Now, after three months back in his substantive post, Burnett has been called off once more.

The appointment was announced on the website of the ECSC, which states that the Chair of the JLSC has appointed “His Honour, Rickie Burnett, to act as Master, Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court for the period September 15 to December 21, 2019, for the purpose of conducting the Master’s sittings for the stated period.”

He will be assigned for duty to St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Grenada and Anguilla, as opposed to the last time when he was assigned to SVG, St Kitts and Anguilla.

From January to June 2019, no one took custody of the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court matters in the Senior Magistrate’s absence which caused the court to have to spend some time finding its legs in the face of numerous adjournments given in order to summon defendants and complainants when the court finally resumed. However, Burnett informed during a civil matter yesterday that “I am assuming that there will be continuity in the office” when he is gone. He noted that the person who is coming will take up from where the matters are left off.

Burnett has been serving as Senior Magistrate since his appointment on December 29, 2017. His legal journey began when he joined the High Court Registry in 1984 as junior clerk before working his way up to deputy Registrar. He was called to the Bar in 2007, and was sworn in as magistrate on July 18, 2011.