L-R: Mr Clifton Warner and Hon. Richard Williams

Governor Richard Tauwhare - acting on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, has appointed Gordon Ward as Chief Justice of Turks and Caicos Islands . In additional in order to address the increasing case-load in the Supreme Court and the Magistrates' Courts, the Commission advised His Excellency to appoint a second Supreme Court Judge and an additional Resident Magistrate.

The present Chief Magistrate on Providenciales, Hon. Richard Williams, has been appointed as the new Supreme Court Judge. Hon Justice Williams is also an English barrister and practiced in London for fourteen years specialising in Family Court work. He first came to the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2001 and worked with a private law practice for a short period until he was appointed Senior Magistrate, Coroner and Vice President and acting President of the Family Court for St Vincent and the Grenadines . He returned to this country as Resident Magistrate for two years before becoming Chief Magistrate; a position he has held for the past four years. Hon Justice Williams will take up his new position on 14 May 2008 .

The additional Resident Magistrate is Mr Clifton Warner will take up his post on Providenciales on 1 May 2008 . Mr Warner brings many years experience in both the administrative and judicial sides of the court system. He worked for seventeen years as a court clerk and then in general administration in the Trinidad and Tobago public service. After graduating in law in Barbados , he held the positions of Assistant Registrar, Magistrate and Senior Magistrate in Trinidad and Tobago over a total period of twelve years. In 2000, he was appointed Senior Magistrate of Montserrat and has served in that position since.

Following Justice Williams' appointment, it will be possible to have a permanent Supreme Court on Providenciales in addition to the present Court on Grand Turk. The Judicial Service Commission will be recommending a new Chief Magistrate to His Excellency in the near future. From 14 May 2008 , when Hon Justice Williams takes up his new position, Hon Ms Joan Joyner, the present Resident Magistrate on Grand Turk , has been appointed to act as Chief Magistrate.

Hon Justice Ward has been acting as Chief Justice since November 2007 and was appointed to the substantive position on 5 March 2008 . Justice Ward practiced as a barrister in England for twelve years before he was appointed to a number of senior judicial positions, mainly in the Pacific region, over the past twenty eight years.

During that time he was Chief Magistrate of Fiji and of Tuvalu , Resident Judge of the British Sovereign Areas of Cyprus, Supreme Court Judge of Vanuatu , Chief Justice of each of Solomon Islands , Tonga and Tuvalu , Judge of Appeal in Vanuatu , Solomon Islands and Samoa and President of the Tonga Court of Appeal. Immediately prior to coming to the Turks and Caicos Islands , Hon Justice Ward was President of the fourteen judges of the Fiji Court of Appeal.

(GIS)