News
Friday, July 26, 2013
CABINET has approved a clutch of measures which should collectively reduce some of the frustration and delays faced by persons in accessing valuables left behind by persons who have died.Justice Minister Senator Mark Golding, speaking at Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, said the approved recommendations were “to modernise and eliminate some of the anomalies that now exist in the laws governing the administration of estates of persons who have died”.The laws and practice of probate and administration of estates in Jamaica have not been significantly reformed in Jamaica for over a hundred years, with the exception of the Probate Rules of Court.The justice minister said over the years the system inherited from Jamaica’s colonial past has struggled to satisfy the demands of a growing population in an era when processes are expected to facilitate efficiency and expedition.“The result of inadequate resources and archaic laws and procedures is that there is a substantial backlog of applications in the Supreme Court, the Resident Magistrate’s Court and the Stamp Office, and members of the public are often frustrated by the delays,” he told journalists.Golding also said one result is that significant numbers of parcels of land and other inherited assets such as money in bank accounts cannot be transferred to beneficiaries.He said executives, personal representatives and administrators, discouraged by protracted and confusing processes in the court and other departments of government, either leave these estates in abeyance or completely abandon the efforts to complete the administration of the properties that form part of these estates.“What we have done is that we have identified a number of reforms that collectively can make a difference in this regard,” he said.As such, there is to be an amendment to the Judicature (Supreme Court) Additional Powers of the Registrar Act. The justice minister noted that part of the delay was that only the registrar can sign grants of probate at present. As a result, section three of the legislation is to be amended to confer powers on a deputy registrar to sign.In the meantime, the Administrator-General’s Act is to be amended to remove the need for the administrator general to apply for a grant of probate from the courts in the case of intestate estates and where there is a will but no executor was appointed or is willing to probate.Furthermore, there will be a change to the Intestate’s Estates and Property Charges Act to recognise that a child who is in the womb can be treated as a beneficiary as long as that child survives the death of the intestate person“These are a clutch of measures that should collectively reduce some of the delays in the administration of deceased estates in Jamaica, it is a source of frustration and injustice,” Golding said.
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It"s now easier to get valuables left by dead relatives
