Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable Dame |
Janice M. Pereira | |
Office: | Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court |
Term Start: | 28 September 2012 |
Term End: | 5 May 2024[1] |
Predecessor: | Hugh Rawlins |
Successor: | Mario Michel |
Birth Name: | Janice Mesadis George |
Birth Place: | Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands |
Nationality: | British Virgin Islands |
Alma Mater: | University of the West Indies, Norman Manley Law School |
Occupation: | Judge |
Profession: | Lawyer |
Dame Janice Mesadis Pereira (George; formerly: George-Creque, Creque), was the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.[2] She became the first female Chief Justice and the first person from the British Virgin Islands to become Chief Justice in 2012.[3]
She was originally called to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands in 1981, and became a High Court judge in 2003. She was promoted to the Court of Appeal on 9 January 2009 before being appointed to the Chief Justice in 2012.[4]
As Chief Justice of the Court, she was the supreme judicial officer of the courts of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2013.[5]
On 28 August 2024, it was announced she would be appointed a Privy Councillor[6] on 2 October,[7] and sit on its Judicial Committee.[8]
Prior to joining the judiciary, as a practising lawyer Janice Pereira twice acted as supervisor for elections in the British Virgin Islands in the 1983 general election (under her maiden name) and in the 1986 general election (under her first married name, Janice George-Creque).[9]