Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

848.   Crown Book to be a record

  1.  

    (1)   It is not necessary to draw any formal record of the proceedings on any trial for an indictable offence but the Registrar shall cause to be preserved all indictments and all written statements and depositions transmitted to him or her, and shall keep a book to be called the Crown Book, which shall be the property of the Court and shall be deemed a record of the Court.

  1.  

    (2)   There should be entered in the Crown Book the name of the judge, and a memorandum of the substance of all proceedings at every trial and of the result of every trial.

  1.  

    (3)   The Registrar shall cause to be entered in the Crown Book in every case a statement of the following particulars—

    1.  

      (a)     the name of the committing magistrate and the charge on which the accused person was committed;

    1.  

      (b)     the names of all the witnesses whose depositions have been transmitted to the Registrar.

  1.  

    (4)   The omission of such statement, or any mistake in it, shall not constitute a ground for an objection to the proceedings, but the Court may, and shall, on the application of either the prosecutor or the accused, at any time, order a statement of these particulars to be entered or amend the statement where it is erroneous or defective.

  1.  

    (5)   Any erroneous or defective entry in the Crown Book may at any time be amended by the judge in accordance with the facts by which such error or defect is sought to be corrected, but nothing contained in this section shall dispense with the taking of notes by the judge presiding at the trial.

  1.  

    (6)   The entries in the Crown Book, or a certified copy of the entries, or of so much of the entries as may be material may be referred to in any proceeding in a criminal case on appeal.

  1.  

    (7)   Any certificate of any indictment, trial, conviction, or acquittal, or of the substance of such certificate, shall be made up from the memorandum in the Crown Book, and shall be admissible in evidence for the same purpose and to the same extent as certificates of records, or the substantial parts of such certificates of records, are by law admissible.