Unveils practice direction
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Judiciary has launched a small claims court to provide easy access and speedy resolution of simple debt recovery disputes involving small claims.
The small claims court would, among others, improve the speed of adjudication for commercial disputes involving financial claims not exceeding N7 million, by introducing self-representation and delivery of judgments within 60 days, among other transformative procedural rules.
The Chief Judge (CJ) of the FCT High Court, Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, in his keynote address at the launch of the court and unveiling of the practice direction, stated that the initiative is an invaluable intervention with practical goal-driven solutions, which legal practitioners and court users will find very useful.
He stressed that the court is significant in many areas such as ease of quick access to justice, seamless system of adjudication and traditional in nature, among others.
The CJ charged judicial officers deployed to the court to remove any available mischief in laws during adjudication to ensure the benefits of the court are reaped.
Justice Baba-Yusuf said: “The small claims court is traditional in nature and if it must succeed, unnecessary bottlenecks must be removed.
“This way, citizens, particularly indigent persons, who have monetary disputes not exceeding N7 million can easily access speedy, cheap, and seamless systems of adjudicating on the avalanche of small commercial disputes in the FCT without having to go through a rigorous financial draining litigation process of debt recovery.”
The CJ stressed that to underscore the importance of the court, a guidebook for the operations of the small claims courts, and officers have been worked out, maintaining that, “the document will assist both the court and court users in general.”
The CJ further said: “We are in the process of translating it into the three major Nigerian Languages, that is to say, Hausa, Ibo, and Yoruba.”
Earlier in an opening remark, the chairperson that steered the committee on the court, Justice Mary Ann Anenih, noted that before now, resolution of debt recovery disputes takes some months, even years in certain cases, depending on the nature and complexities of such matters.
According to her, tackling these challenges sometimes question the cost effectiveness of litigating small claims, which necessitates the establishment of the small claim court.
