Caymanian romance is not dead, the chief justice announced at the start of the new legal year.

The country’s top judge Margaret Ramsay-Hale said that the number of marriages last year far outstripped the number of divorces as the country prepares to celebrate another Valentine’s Day next month.

She added, “There were 233 divorce decrees issued, which was a significant downward drift from last year’s high of 286.”

Ramsay-Hale said that her “quip” last year that “the prospect for marriage was grim” in Cayman had been reported on.

She added, “And so I feel obliged to note this year that 660 marriages were actually recorded by the registrar in 2024, which means the number of marriages far outstripped the number of divorces and that should yield some optimism among those who read so much into my remarks last year.”

Indictments and legal filings

She was speaking as she discussed the statistics for the divisions of the Grand Court for 2024 at the ceremony to mark the start of the legal year on Wednesday.

Ramsay-Hale said, “There were 139 new indictments. This is the three years 2021 to 2023, an average of 102 indictments were filed. So the 139 reported in an increase of about 36%.

“But, before you get alarmed at the increase in crime, the increase is largely due to 23 indictments which were filed in respect of what is, in essence, a single case of bribery arising out of an investigation carried out … into allegations of bribery involving a public officer.”

She added that it affected the criminal clearance rate for the year, which was 79% but would have been 93% if the bribery allegation indictments were not included.

Ramsay-Hale said the financial services division of the court logged 393 new cases over last year, down from 414 in 2023, which was “not statistically significant”.

She added the division was “an important contributor to the economy of the island because it maintains the high regard of foreign investors in the quality of justice available in the Cayman Islands”.

She added the commercial courts encouraged inward investment because businesses were confident “their disputes will be independently, effectively, efficiently, fairly quickly resolved”.

Ramsay-Hale said that the family division had been given 299 new cases in 2024 and 239 had been disposed of.

She added that 140 of the new cases had been dealt with over the year, a 47% disposal rate.

Ramsay-Hale said the family division suffered from cases being brought back to it on multiple occasions “because some parties simply cannot accept the decision of the court or, surprisingly, even the terms of a consent order they have already agreed to.”

The chief justice said that divorce actions that had been granted often returned to court when there were children involved and the disposal rate was affected by the trend.

She highlighted a 2022 consent matter involving children, which had come back last year and taken up 30 days. The matter was now back in court and “would inevitably take up a large number of court days in 2025”.

More mediation needed

Ramsay-Hale said that the family division was assisted by trained mediators and that the programme had been running since 2016.

She added, “Its purpose is to assist families in separating without leaving scorched earth behind. The only persons who gain from this … are the lawyers if they are involved or that parent who simply can’t bear to lose.

“But the only people who lose in this context are the children of the marriage.”

Ramsay-Hale said that mediation worked because it kept the parents, “if not warm to each other”, with an agreement they had arrived at, not one handed down by a judge.

She added, “We see lots of child alienation cases and we’re not seeing enough of an uptake in mediation.”

Ramsay-Hale said judges were concerned because some of the participants, including some with lawyers, were not using, or did not understand, what mediation could offer and that letters from mediators were ignored by their legal representatives.

But, she said, a three-day family law conference, organised by the judicial branch and to be held this year, could improve the situation.

She added it was hoped to bring distinguished former High Court of England and Wales family law judge Sir Nicholas Mostyn to Cayman as keynote speaker, as well as top lawyers from the Caribbean region.

She said the civil division of the court was also in line to benefit from mediation services.

Ramsay-Hale added there were 287 new matters filed with the division last year, up by 76 cases compared to 2023, with no increase in the available resources.