The Cayman Islands Summary Court sat with an acting magistrate from 20 January to 19 June 2026, between Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn's last sitting on 16 January and Duane Murray's swearing-in on 30 June, official notices from Judicial Administration and the Governor's Office show. An analysis by The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) of the hearing lists the Judiciary posts on judicial.ky shows how the court's work was distributed as the bench changed.

TCJ counted the lists posted under each magistrate's name for 1 January to 15 September in 2025 and in 2026. The figures are counts of lists posted, not a measure of workload: a single list may carry one matter or 40, and the lists are scheduled hearings rather than outcomes.

Lists posted under Chief Magistrate Angelyn Hernandez's name rose from 142 in the 2025 period to 163 in 2026, under Magistrate Vanessa Allard from 140 to 190, and under Magistrate Philippa McFarlane fell from 146 to 125. Lists under Magistrate Gunn fell from 96 to four, she having last sat on 16 January. Lists under Acting Magistrate Adam Roberts rose from 29 to 75, and 62 were posted under Magistrate Murray between his swearing-in on 30 June and 15 September, against none in 2025.

Across the six names the lists total 553 for the 2025 period and 619 for the same period in 2026. The three magistrates who sat throughout both periods, Chief Magistrate Hernandez, Magistrate Allard and Magistrate McFarlane, account for 428 lists in 2025 and 478 in 2026. The remaining lists in 2026 fall to the acting magistrate and to the new appointee, where in 2025 they fell to Magistrate Gunn and the acting magistrate.

Judicial Administration and the Judicial and Legal Services Commission were each asked on 22 October to say whether the acting appointment was made to cover Magistrate Gunn's departure, whether the June appointment filled her post, and how the recruitment was run. Neither had responded by the time of publication.

The bench's establishment

The job description the Commission published for this year's magistrate recruitment described the Summary Court as comprising a Chief Magistrate and three magistrates. It set the statutory minimum for the post at five years' post-qualification experience in the practice of law in a Commonwealth jurisdiction, said the postholder must "command the respect of the legal profession and the community and possess absolute integrity", and gave remuneration as provided under the Judges Allowances and Emoluments Law. The Judiciary's annual report for 2025, dated April 2026, said a recruitment exercise for an additional Summary Court magistrate was planned for 2026. Neither document says whether the post filled in June was the one Magistrate Gunn vacated or the additional one, and that was among the questions put to both bodies.

The same annual report records that the Judiciary had 100 personnel at the end of 2025, 89 staff and 11 judicial officers, of whom 70 were Caymanian, and that 13 recruitment exercises were run during the year, 10 of them concluded, with about 80 per cent of the vacancies filled by Caymanians. Those figures cover the whole Judiciary. The report gives no separate figure for the bench and does not state the nationality of any magistrate.

Magistrate Gunn's departure

Magistrate Gunn was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1998 and practised in the United Kingdom in criminal and civil law from 1999 to 2006, according to her biography on judicial.ky. She was appointed a magistrate in April 2012 and sat as an acting judge of the Grand Court in 2017, and the 2025 annual report records that she chaired the Sister Islands Planning Appeals Tribunal from 2021 and the Guardian ad Litem Panel Committee from 2023.

She was given a valedictory ceremony on Friday 16 January 2026, at which Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale said she "sits in these Courts for the last time" and described her decisions as "careful, well-reasoned, and grounded in the law", according to Judicial Administration's report of the ceremony published on 21 January. The Solicitor General, Reshma Sharma KC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Simon Davis, and Prathna Bodden, chairman of the criminal defence bar subcommittee of the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association, also spoke, and former Chief Magistrate Valdis Foldats spoke at the Chief Justice's invitation. The report said she had been appointed a Circuit Judge overseas without naming the court.

The King appointed her a Circuit Judge in England and Wales with effect from 2 February 2026, on the advice of the Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice, and she was deployed to the Northern Circuit at Preston Crown Court, according to the UK Courts and Tribunals Judiciary.

Acting cover

Four days after her last sitting, on 20 January, Governor Jane Owen swore in Mr Roberts to sit as an acting magistrate for the period 20 January to 19 June 2026, Judicial Administration said in a notice the same day. The Chief Magistrate witnessed the swearing-in. TCJ found no notice of acting cover for 20 to 29 June, the ten days before Magistrate Murray was sworn in.

Mr Roberts is not new to the role. The Commission's annual report for 2024 records that he was sworn in as an acting magistrate by the Governor in March, April and August of that year, following the Commission's advice. According to the same report, the Commission maintains a list of persons approved to serve as acting magistrates, which it calls Panel Magistrates and reviews every two years; the Chief Justice may select from that list, and those selected are appointed without a further recommendation from the Commission. Where no one on the list is available or has the necessary expertise, the Chief Justice may suggest candidates directly to the Commission. The 2024 report also records that the Commission's advice that year resulted in the appointment of three magistrates and seven Grand Court judges, without naming them.

The 2025 annual report describes Mr Roberts as appointed to sit when needed and says he "continues to support the Court, sitting from time as an acting Magistrate".

The new appointment

Magistrate Murray was recommended by the Commission after an open recruitment early in 2026 in which the post was advertised locally and internationally, a shortlisting process was followed by an interview panel that evaluated 10 candidates, and the Governor accepted the Commission's recommendation, the Governor's Office said in a release of 1 July 2026. The release was issued by Acting Governor Franz Manderson, who attended the swearing-in with the Chief Magistrate on 30 June. Judicial Administration published its own announcement on 2 July.

Magistrate Murray had served for eight years as a magistrate and a district court judge in what the release called his home country of Trinidad and Tobago. The release did not say whom he replaced, and it does not state his nationality or whether he holds Caymanian status. Judicial Administration lists him alongside Magistrates Allard and McFarlane as the current magistrates of the Summary Court, with Magistrate Gunn under former magistrates.

How magistrates are appointed

Magistrates are appointed by the Governor acting in accordance with the advice of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission under section 106 of the Constitution, which lists the office of Magistrate among those to which the section applies, alongside judges, the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Governor may depart from that advice only where following it would prejudice the Crown's service. Under the same section, disciplinary control over a magistrate or a Grand Court judge other than the Chief Justice rests with the Chief Justice, a magistrate may be removed only for inability to discharge the functions of the office or for misbehaviour, and the Commission is required to draw up a code of conduct for the judiciary and a procedure for complaints.

The Commission itself is established by section 105. Its chairman and one other member may not be lawyers; the President of the Court of Appeal sits on it by virtue of office, with judicial members and two attorneys-at-law, one with experience in Government service and one in private practice. No member of Parliament or candidate for it may serve. Its decisions require the agreement of at least five members, and it is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.

The Chief Magistrate is appointed separately. Magistrate Hernandez's succession to Mr Foldats on his retirement was announced by the Chief Justice on 5 January 2024.

Each of the changes on the bench was published by Judicial Administration or the Governor's Office at the time: the Chief Magistrate succession on 5 January 2024, Mr Roberts' acting appointment on 20 January 2026, Magistrate Gunn's valedictory on 21 January 2026, and Magistrate Murray's appointment on 1 and 2 July 2026. The sequence set out above is TCJ's compilation from those notices and the lists. TCJ has not located a single published statement setting out the bench's current composition, the dates and terms of each appointment, or the period of acting cover.

The questions put

TCJ emailed Judicial Administration on 22 October asking for the current list of magistrates with their dates of appointment and terms, whether Mr Roberts' acting appointment was made to cover Magistrate Gunn's departure and what arrangement applied from 20 to 29 June, whether Magistrate Murray's appointment fills Magistrate Gunn's post or an additional one, whether the four-post establishment is considered sufficient given the caseload reported for 2025, and whether sitting-day or caseload figures by magistrate are available for 2025 and 2026.

TCJ emailed the Commission the same day asking how many of the applicants and interviewees for the 2026 post were Caymanian, whether any policy on Caymanian applicants applies to judicial posts, whether the 2026 recruitment was for Magistrate Gunn's post or the additional one, which magistrate appointments, acting appointments and renewals it has advised on since 1 January 2024, and whether the list of Panel Magistrates was reviewed in 2026. Both emails set a deadline of 27 October. Neither body had responded by the time of publication.

The court's caseload

The Judiciary's 2025 annual report records about 2,305 new criminal matters in the Summary Court in 2025, an increase of 86 per cent on 2024, and 2,281 traffic matters filed in Grand Cayman, against 1,213 the year before. It records 429 criminal trials listed, more than 600 sentencing matters listed, and 888 criminal and traffic matters reported as unserved. The Youth Court recorded 43 new matters, the Summary Court's civil jurisdiction 202, children's matters 95, and the Coroner's Court 54 new cases with 137 pending. In Cayman Brac and Little Cayman the court recorded 24 criminal matters and 140 traffic summonses and tickets.

Caymanian recruitment

The nationality of appointees to senior legal office has been raised in Parliament in relation to the Attorney General. The Cayman Islands Government (CIG) announced on 4 September that Attorney General Samuel Bulgin will retire in August 2027, which TCJ reported on 23 September. Asked then by TCJ whether Caymanian attorneys were in contention for that post, the Commissions Secretariat replied on 8 September on the Commission chairman's behalf that the Commission "will conduct a competitive recruitment exercise for the next Attorney General in line with its published recruitment and appointment processes", without addressing Caymanian candidates.

A Private Member's Motion in the name of Kenneth Bryan MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, seconded by Julie Hunter MP and received by the Clerk of Parliament on 8 October, asks the Government to open discussions with the United Kingdom on amending section 56 of the Constitution so that the Attorney General must be Caymanian. Mr Bryan told TCJ on 19 October that the purpose was parity with the elected members and the Deputy Governor, who must be Caymanian, and that the Commission's authority to assess qualifications, character and merit would be untouched. The motion does not extend to the bench, and no comparable proposal for magistrates has been published.

The Commission's policies and procedures manual, last updated on 3 June 2025, allows a post to be advertised internally, locally, regionally or internationally and contains no preference for Caymanian applicants. The 2026 magistrate job description makes no reference to Caymanian status. Neither document is the whole of the Commission's selection policy, which is among the matters put to the Commission on 22 October and unanswered at publication.