Speed of Justice, a panacea for Nigeria’s inadequate legal system
The law firm, Olisa Agbakoba and Associates (OA&A) has introduced the book-“Speed of Justice” (A Training Manual on Case Management) as a panacea for the inadequacies in the Nigerian Legal System. This was disclosed at a Press Conference held on Monday, 12th May, 2014 at the Apapa Office of Olisa Agbakoba and Associates in Lagos.
Addressing the press at this meeting, the head of Corporate/Commercial and Public Sector Group at OA&A, Olabisi Akodu, stated that the Speed of Justice Project was adopted early this year due to the observation that the traditional legal system in Nigeria had failed over the years.
She said, “The Speed of Justice Project is designed to ensure case flow in courts. The court should be a legal clinic where legal problems like patients are diagnosed and resolved in a short time and not stretching simple cases for 5 to 10 years”.
“Speed of Justice involves judicial oversight. It is essentially about Case Management, empowering Judges to control or determine the speed or pace of proceedings in court”, she said.
According to her, the major obstacle to civil procedure reform in Nigeria is excessive loyalty to adversarial forensics. “Bench and Bar alike, are too enamoured with the ancient traditions of legal battle in courtrooms”, she noted. The initiative she said was partly introduced under the former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abdullahi Mustapha (as he then was), but the firm’s proposed review extended it; modernising several other key areas such as the following,
Simple Language
with the use of simple language the rules will be rendered in plainer English and so, archaic expressions will be minimised. Court users may not find usage such as “hereof”, “thereto”, and “aforesaid” in the draft.
Motion, Suo Motu, Ex parte, etc, will be replaced with the simple use of ‘Application’, – in its own initiative and without notice respectively.
Presentation
Rules will be broken into sub-rules for ease of understanding. Excessively long sentences and paragraphs have been shortened.
Informal Applications
Simple, on-the-spot applications may now be made orally. A judge cannot refuse to hear or consider a simple application merely because it is not written. This is a departure from the compulsory use of Written Address for every application, which is not always useful. The judge should have power to take applications informally and deliver a Bench Ruling.
Drawing up Orders
To deal with the delays in drawing up of Orders by Court administration, Counsel may draw up orders from his application and the Court supervises and adopts the orders. This will save enormous time.
E-filing and E-payment options
Proposed Rules extends the communication centre provided in Order 54 of the existing Rules by making provisions for the electronic court. Filings will be 24 hours as the E-Registry will be open.
Compulsory ADR
Although not in the present draft, it is inspired by the recently adopted Lagos State Civil Procedure Rules 2012. It proposes a multi-door approach to litigation. A Claimant is bound to subject his claim to checks for possible ADR. The court is active in deciding cases suitable for ADR or those qualified to be channeled to mediation or litigation.
Bench Rulings
Justice was observed to be the practice of adjourning delivery of simple Rulings on interlocutory applications on the basis of research for legal authorities. Reforms should make Bench Rulings mandatory except in very serious or recondite issues of law.
Other modernization trends on Costs, limited Cross-examination, reference to be on Court’s Initiative, application of day to day hearings, fixing of trial schedule, summary judgment without trial when Claimant believes there is no defence and validity of service of Advance Court Documents will all contribute to a workable rules regime.
Also speaking at the conference, Victor Nwakasi who co-leads the Debt restructuring and resolution team of OA&A, explained that, “Speed of Justice is a national project realized from International Law practices, aimed at boosting Law practices in the country. It is a Lexicon invented to look at the administration of justice that fits into international practice when it comes to dispute resolution and attaining justice,” he said. “It is an initiative that we believe, if imbibed by the state government, would assist in boosting the economy. Whatever aids the emergence of quick delivery of justice is Speed of Justice”.
Another issue he noted, is hardware infrastructure. “Recently, a ruling was stalled because of lack of power for a week and it slowed down judgment, this in any way, will not help in the administration of justice. Nigeria runs very low whenever issues of work, investment, registration of title is mentioned,” he said.
“Nigerian Lawyers should be aware that if you must litigate, it must be on serious legal issues that seeks litigation,” he added.
Nwakasi also indicated that the bedrock of Speed of Justice is the modernisation of the Rules of Court and its strict application, Case Management Conference (CMC) which was already adopted by the Lagos state government, be adopted by other states, such that before a case goes to court, it has to go through this process.
He further stressed the need for every lawyer to be computer literate, in order to aid speedy delivery of justice with the use of their laptops, ipads, blackberry devices, etc. “How can a lawyer who has no knowledge of the computer operate with the e-legal system? If you’re a lawyer and you want to participate in modernised service delivery, you have to be updated”.
“I’m glad that the enculturation process has started. Back then when I was in Law school, there was no rule for using laptops but now, it is compulsory to have a laptop on your admission into Law school”, he said.
“We have the endorsement of the Attorney General of the Federation, we have contacted the Chief Judge of the Federal High court, and we have had a series of meetings with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, hoping to have our proposals elevated. It is unfortunate that we live in a country where we do not take reforms seriously,’ he observed; noting that only Lagos state has fully embraced the modernisation of roads.
Given these realities, Nwakasi explained that there is need for the State, the Federal Government and the public to buy these ideas of reforms as it should be seen as a welcome development. In the same vein, he called on the media to serve as a vehicle to promulgate these ideas, to be at the fore front of these developments in order to reach a larger audience far beyond the reach of a law firm.
Another member of the team, Collins Okeke , added that the process will not be entirely easy, particularly with regards to awakening the consciousness of frivolous lawyers to their responsibilities. He had this to say, “Yes we are aware of the task that lies ahead of us. All we just need to do is a sensitisation process, aimed at bringing lawyers, judges and even the public to understand the urgent need for judicial reforms which will benefit everyone in the end”.
He continued, “We need to be dynamic and meet up with global demands, we are in a global environment, if you go to more advanced jurisdictions, you will see that they take this system of speed of justice seriously, we have to let them understand that we are in a global environment, we need to effect these changes if we hope to compete with the outside world because one of the major difficulties we have in our relations with other countries or jurisdictions is the complexities of our contractual and justice process. To this end, simple contracts and commercial law cases drag on for several years. This will definitely not bring the progress we desire”, he concluded.
The Speed of Justice Manual is a 46-page Training Manual on Case Management, written by Dr. Olisa Agbakoba SAN and Chinua Asuzu, printed in March 2014.
It covers the objectives of Judicial Case Management which includes: Efficient Time Management, Reduction of Litigation Costs, Fairness, Case Management toolkits, New Rules that will require judges to actively manage Cases, Court of Appeal (Fast Track) Practice Direction, Model Code that will enliven Civil Litigation and much more.
Speed of Justice is recommended not just for the members off the Legal Profession alone but students of Law and the public at large.