In the week beginning 19 October the Grand Court listed three Crown trials to run alongside one another: a multi-defendant trial set down for four weeks in Court 1 at Heroes Square, a five-day trial split between Court 8 on Cardinal Avenue and Court 2, and a second five-day trial that began jury selection in Court 2 on 21 October. The five-day trial that began on 12 October was still listed as continuing in the week of 26 October, its third week. The "long vacation, urgent listings only" banner that headed the lists from 3 August came off with the list for the week of 14 September, and the trials have not stopped.

One indictment, numbered 4 of 2026, has appeared on at least 20 weekly lists since 5 January, most recently on 16 October. The cause lists are scheduled hearings, not outcomes. What they show is a criminal division using every courtroom it has while the purpose-built courthouse that successive governments have planned, costed and budgeted for since 2016 remains unbuilt.

The promise, year by year

The present courthouse dates from 1972. On 30 May 2016 the Governor, Helen Kilpatrick, told the Legislative Assembly: "This Government has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to produce an outline business case for new court house facilities." The 2018 estimates carried a "New Court House Project" line of CI$200,000.

On 26 November 2021 the then Deputy Premier, Chris Saunders, told Parliament in the Budget Address that borrowing would fund "$22.9 million for security, for upgrades to the Prison, the new proposed Court House and the purchase of a Coast Guard vessel". That year the "Court House" capital line, carrying CI$1,250,000 for 2021 and CI$7,590,000 brought forward unspent from 2020, was reduced by CI$5,877,543 in three Cabinet reallocations; the Attorney General told Parliament on 8 December 2021 that CI$1,033,668 of it went to a new case-management system. The 2022 estimates record a "New Court House Project" budget of CI$250,000 against an unaudited actual spend of nil. In 2023 the line was cut again, from CI$4,204,720 to CI$2,029,720, and it runs at between CI$1.2 million and CI$2.8 million a year from 2024 to 2027. No line for a new building appears in the current estimates.

The Chief Justice, Margaret Ramsay-Hale, said at the Opening of the Grand Court on 10 January 2024 that three courthouses were "still not enough to meet our needs", and on 8 January 2025 that the Judiciary continued "to prepare our submission for the acquisition of property on which to build the courtroom of the future". The Judiciary's 2025 annual report lists a bespoke courthouse as its Strategic Priority 3, with no site, cost or date. On 17 October 2025 the Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Hew MP, echoed in Parliament "the Honourable Chief Justice's plea that funding for the upgrading and expansion of our courthouses be included in the upcoming budget". The Throne Speech of 19 June 2026 did not mention a courthouse.

The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) emailed the Government's Department of Communications on 22 October, copying the Office of the Premier's media office, asking for the status, budget and timetable of a new court facility, what has been spent to date, and which ministry holds the project, and asking that the request be routed to the Office of the Deputy Governor and the responsible ministry. The Department acknowledged the request the same day and said the queries would be directed to the entity responsible. No substantive response had been received by the 27 October deadline or by the date of publication.

What the court itself says

The Judiciary's own explanation points away from bricks and judges. In 2025, 140 criminal cases were filed and 122 disposed of, a clearance rate of 87%. As at 6 January 2026, 38 defendants were on remand at HMP Northward, 12 of them beyond the six-month benchmark. The annual report states that "the principal causes of extended remand were not judicial inactivity or a failure to list trials, but capacity constraints elsewhere in the criminal justice system", naming pre-sentence and mental health reports, expert reports and "the limited availability of defence counsel in serious criminal cases".

It adds: "Increasing judicial capacity in isolation would not resolve remand pressures", and, of the Bar, "capacity exists to list trials earlier than can often be accommodated by counsel availability". A Public Defender Service, it says, "needs to be considered with some urgency". Asked on 22 October whether any such service was under consideration, the Portfolio of Legal Affairs replied the same day that it "is not involved in matters before the Criminal Bar". Judicial Administration was asked the same day about the property submission, additional judges, trials heard, and the interval between indictment and trial, which the court does not publish. It had not responded by the 27 October deadline or by the time of publication.

That is the Judiciary's published account, and a reasonable one: a long trial listed and heard is the system working. Decisions on a court building rest with Cabinet.

The money

The published estimates put business-case budgets of CI$200,000 in 2018, CI$60,000 in 2021 and CI$250,000 in 2022 against the new courthouse; the capital line has gone on the existing estate. Three figures are not published: the total spent on the business case and any design or site work, the annual cost of acting Grand Court judges, and the number of Crown trials heard in 2025 and 2026. All three were put to the Government and Judicial Administration on 22 October. None had been supplied by the time of publication.

The lists will keep coming out every week, and the estimates every budget cycle. A new courthouse will show up in one of them before it shows up on the ground.