Dame Joan Augusta Sawyer, DBE, PC (born 26 November 1940) is a Bahamian judge. She was Chief Justice of the Bahamas from 1996 to 2001 and President of the Court of Appeal of the Bahamas from 2001 to 2010. She was the first woman to ever serve in those two positions. [1] [2]
Sawyer was born in George Town, Exuma, [3] Bahamas in 1940. She attended the Georgetown Public School, [3] Aquinas College, and the Government High School. [3]
Sawyer began her career in 1958 as a clerk-trainee at the Ministry of Public Works. Subsequently, she obtained an LL.B. at the University of London.
Sawyer joined the government's Legal Department in 1970 [3] and went to the College of Law in London in 1970 to study for the bar exams. [3] Sawyer was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Gray's Inn on 19 July 1973 [4] and to the Bahamas Bar on 12 September 1973. [3]
By July 1974, Smith was serving as Crown Counsel, prosecuting cases on behalf of the Crown. [5] In September 1978, she served as an acting magistrate on a widely-reported poaching case. [6] [7] In 1987, she served as an acting Supreme Court justice for two months. [2]
Sawyer was named a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas on 6 May 1988, [2] and served in that position until 30 June 1995. She returned to the bench on 1 November 1996 as Chief Justice, [8] where she sat until 26 November 2001. [9] [8]
She was then appointed President of the Court of Appeal; [8] a position from which she retired on 26 November 2010, [8] her 70th birthday. She was succeeded in the position by Anita Allen, the second woman to hold the job. [10] Sawyer is also a member of the Indian Council of Jurists. [11]
Sawyer was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 25 November 1996. [12] She was also notably the only Bahamian to serve on both the judicial and political branches of the Privy Council. [13]
Sawyer was married to the late Geoffrey Sawyer; [3] the couple had one son, Samuel.
The first Bahamian woman called to the Bahamas Bar, the late Mrs. Patricia Cole-Cozzi, and the first woman Chief Justice Dame, Joan Sawyer will be honoured for their judicial accomplishments
Petitioning the court this morning were... Joan Augusta Sawyer.... Mrs. Sawyer and Mrs. Bethell are members of the Attorney-General's chambers of the Law Department. Mrs. Sawyer, wife of Geoffrey Sawyer, began law studies after joining the Legal Department in 1970. From Exuma, she received her early education at the Georgetown Public School between 1958 [sic] and 1952 Crown Counsel Bostwick said. After studying at Government High School, she went to England where she entered the College of Law in 1970 and completed her bar finals this year.
The judge hearing the case is Joan Sawyer, a young prosecutor filling in for a vacationing magistrate. The prosecutor, ironically, is Sawyer's boss, Bahamian Solicitor-General Langton Hilton. Sawyer showed no partiality to Hilton in yesterday's proceedings.