|
Costa
Rica:
All
Aspiring Judges
Flunk
Basic
Law
Test
With
high
hopes,
the
Judicial
Branch
gave
a
basic
law
test
to
162
lawyers,
aspirants
applying
for
32
places
in a
course
to
prepare
future
judges
for
their
duties.
The
results
couldn't
have
been
more
disappointing.
All
failed
the
test
last
June
and
the
course
was
canceled.
The
aspirants
came
from
several
universities,
public
and
private.
Supreme
Court
Magistrate
Orlando
Aguirre
was
appalled.
"This
demonstrates
that
the
Court
is
attracting
a
human
resource
that
doesn't
have
a
good
university
grounding,"
he
said.
He
has
a
right
to
be
worried:
he
heads
a
committee
charged
with
ensuring
quality
of
judges.
The
test
was
administered
last
June
27,
reported
the
newspaper
La
Nacion
and
was
developed
to
counter
criticism
that
young
judges
lacked
proper
grounding
in
the
nation's
laws.
If
any
had
passed,
they
would
have
gone
on
to a
year's
extra
training.
The
training
program
has
had
its
problems.
Only
16
of
the
211
lawyers
taking
the
exam
in
2010
scored
above
the
minimum
of
70
necessary
to
enter
the
course.
So,
they
resorted
to a
familiar
ploy
to
fill
out
the
rest
of
the
25
students
necessary
for
the
course
--
they
graded
on a
curve.
Marivin
Carvajal,
director
of
the
judicial
training
school,
noted
that
last
year
after
the
six-hour
test,
examiners
had
been
setting
the
bar
at a
score
of
78
but
the
highest
scorer
was
77.01
and
only
16
scored
more
than
70
points.
Worse,
the
lowest
score
turned
out
to
be
35.26.
Carvajal
noted
that
the
overall
results
"were
very
bad
and
very
worrying."
But
the
lawyers
scored
worst
in
the
section
requiring
knowledge
of
the
law.
Judge
Carvajal
told
La
Nacion
that
181
lawyers
took
a
makeup
exam
on
Oct.
10
but
the
results
of
that
one
are
not
in
yet.
He
added
that
despite
the
financial
sacrifice
the
Supreme
Court
had
made
to
train
future
judges,
the
candidate
quality
is
not
up
to
requirements
and
they
show
deficiencies.
Analysis:
Although
many
North
American
expatriates
view
the
court
system
here
with
suspicion
because
the
judges
are
not
elected
but
chosen
by
the
courts
themselves,
it
is
obvious
the
the
Judicial
Branch
here
is
trying
its
best
to
bolster
up
the
system.
Certainly,
a
system
that
tries
this
hard
to
screen
their
prospective
jurists
is
trying
to
assure
that
justice
in
this
country
is
on a
higher
plane.
U.S.
expatriates
will
remember
their
ballots
in
which
they
blindly
mark
an
incumbent
judge's
name
because
it
is
familiar
without
knowing
the
capacities
of
any
of
the
judicial
candidates.
Here,
new
judges
are
chosen
by
other
judges.
They
don't
always
get
it
right
and
some
of
the
inept
or
dishonest
slip
through,
but
sitting
judges
have
a
better
chance
to
know
qualifications
of
the
candidates.
As
for
the
aspirants
for
admission
to
the
course,
presumably
they
have
the
chance
to
bone
up
on
the
law
and
retake
the
exam.
But
they'll
be
the
judges
of
that...
By
Rod
Hughes
,
Fijatevos.com
|
Join
our Facebook page
