The Lagos State House of Assembly has begun moves to ease bottlenecks in the justice delivery system, with the Administration of Civil Justice Bill 2022, now awaiting a second reading. If the bill becomes law, court sittings can now hold virtually, on weekends, holidays, and during strikes, coupled with electronic filing of cases, sanctions for delays, and abuse of court processes, SHAKIRAH ADUNOLA reports.

The Lagos Assembly recently at its plenary tabled one-too-many loopholes in the justice delivery system. Their motivation was the discovery that Lagos residents are gradually losing faith in getting justice through the state’s court, due to the backlog of cases and the snail space process of delivery.

The lawmakers concurred that in many instances, and by the time the matter is determined by the court, the litigants may have completely lost interest or irrecoverable business or economic value, and in no way would have benefitted from the verdict.

Recall that in May 2018, the former Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Opeyemi Oke, raised the alarm that there were over 3,000 backlogs of cases statewide, which was described as alarming.

Significant efforts were made to reverse the trend to restore public confidence in the Lagos State Judiciary and make the administration of justice quicker and more efficient.

The proffered solution was the launch of the Lagos Backlog Elimination Programme (BEP), which was designed to decongest the courts by re-evaluating old cases and finding ways of resolving them through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or accelerated hearings.

The first phase of the BEP involved the evaluation of old cases in batches by volunteers from different law firms, the first batch involving case files between five years and above; the second batch involves case files of 10 years and above while the third batch comprises case files from 15 years and above.

Apparently not enough, the concerned lawmakers reckoned that in its original form, the judicial process is set up to work efficiently. But in reality, litigants still exploit loopholes and deliberately frustrate other parties to protract the matter for as long as possible.

Clearly fed up with the bottlenecks, the plenary welcomed the Administration of Civil Justice Bill 2022 for consideration.

The bill, among others, aims to ensure that court cases begin and conclude as quickly as possible, and in turn aid the state’s economic growth, increase public confidence in the judiciary, and promote investment drive in the state.

At the plenary, led by the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, the lawmaker representing Oshodi-Isolo constituency II, Ladi Ajomale, raised a motion that the Lagos State Civil Justice Bill should be passed into law, beginning with a critical look at the drafting techniques of the bill as well some of the provisions in need for adjustment to facilitate the smooth administration of justice in the state.

Ajomale noted that the content of the bill is a timely solution to some of the challenges bedevilling the judiciary system of today.

He said: “Looking at Section 3 of the bill, it talks about effective management of the court proceedings, where the chief judge is to ensure that there is no lackadaisical attitude between the lawyer and either the judge in preparing for a case.

“There are a lot of cases that need urgent judiciary attention if this law permits the court to sit on weekends, public holidays and even induction action days. Even when people are on strike or rioting and the likes, there will be no delay in the justice system.”

Pointing at Section 4 of the bill, Ajomale said it is time to start looking at the subject matters in question, rather than “when a lawyer is trying to play games, look for how to manipulate himself around, postponing proceeding of the court, this goes straight to the real matters in question and where the judge can now start proceeding as a whole.”

“If we look at the incentive of pre-action protocols by the chief judge, there is also a section in this bill where the chief judge sends reaction protocols, so there is no unnecessary time wasting.    “Once reaction protocols are sent, we go straight into the proceedings of the matter in question.”

The bill also makes provision for electronic filing of cases, which can be regulated by the chief judge to know at what point an electronic filing may be needed.

Ajomale posited that situation where a lot of people, who are always complaining that they are not served physical documents when they are supposed to, or the documents go to the wrong address, would be taken care of by the e-filing system.

He said, the bill has made provision for the court to have all the personal details, like the email address, WhatsApp number and even social media account of those involved and the documents can be sent through these mediums.

Section 10 of the bill also takes care of the lacuna, which some people take advantage of when lawyers try to break the jurisdiction of the court by saying that a particular court could not attend to a matter. In such cases, the plaintiff had to go back to the filling process, which could take another three to four months before getting a date again.

The section explains the fact that that judge may not have the jurisdiction and then automatically passes it on to the chief judge of the state, who will now assign it to the rightful judge, who has the jurisdiction to attend to the matter.

This would untimely knock off the whole refiling process of going back to paying money.

As pointed out by Ajomale, the bill also makes provision for court proceedings during the weekend.

He said: “The bill, if passed into law, will allow the court to sit on weekends, public holidays and even induction action days. So, even when people are going on strike, rioting and the likes, the court has the power to sit on those days, so that there is no delay in the justice system.”

On adjournment of cases, the lawmaker described this approach as a very common anomaly that plays out between lawyers.

“Due to my professional background as a lawyer, I understand particularly what this person does. When a date has been set by the judge for a hearing, you will find a lawyer, who will start looking and seeking for adjournment. The bill will eradicate this.

“For a lawyer coming to seek an adjournment date because he is not ready or prepared, a fine should be set. That will get lawyers ready and prepared to attend their proceedings. There is a penalty in case of a frivolous suit. Some of the petitions written to the House can be baseless, they just want to use it to popularise themselves.

“This bill addresses such cases where anybody who brings a frivolity suit to the court, will be fined a certain amount of money. So, wasting time putting dates in the judge’s calendar that are supposed to deal with serious matters, you are now bringing a frivolous suit that has no end or action, the bill allowed the judge to fine this person. And prevent lawyers from bringing up all their unnecessary suits to court.”

On virtual hearings, the bill also makes provisions such that when there are issues of, ‘you can’t make it to court’ or when you are sick, the judge is on leave, even on weekends, there is no excuse not to attend court sitting, as long as provision is made available and the network is good. This will serve for timely effectiveness in the proceeding for civil action.

The lawmaker representing Oshodi-Isolo 1 Constituency, Ogundipe Stephen, said the bill would improve the efficiency of the law system, just as it would also streamline the civil justice system and stop the irresolution of civil disputes, which has always been a major issue of common concern.

He said: “More importantly, this bill will give clarity and consistency, provide clear guidance, meaning that you cannot mess up with the court any longer because you have to follow the rules.

“All the delay tactics will have to stop especially in civil cases that involve the masses whereby the issue needs to be resolved instantly. The bill has to accommodate the masses having access to justice. It will improve access to justice for everybody irrespective of categories.

“More importantly, if we look at the bill that was passed in this House that has to do with geographical information, this bill will also strengthen it. It will enable Lagosians to have access to their database, even lawyers can be at home and monitor their cases. If this bill is followed to the letter it will guide against all the consequences of problems encountered in the court.”

Lawmaker Representing Ikorodu Constituency II, Moshood Aro, reckoned that the bill will facilitate settlement of cases, reduce the unnecessary backlog for controversial disputes and also make the administration of justice easy and accessible for all.

This bill also helps in saving the cost of travelling for litigants, most especially people with disability and limited financial resources. “Therefore, granting all Lagosians equal access to affordable justice.”

Arguing that one of the intents of the bill is to give quick acceleration of justice,  the lawmaker representing Alimosho Constituency II,  Kehinde Joseph, observed that section four, which has to do with the adjournment by lawyers and the court’s refusal to grant an application for adjournment and refusing an application for adjournment might not help the intention of the bill because whatsoever that is refused an adjournment might go to the Court of Appeal.

“What I think should be done is that the court can allow such a person to call for adjournment three times. Section 10, which has to do with challenging the court jurisdiction, at any time the counsel might request for the jurisdiction and what was said in the bill, is after they will determine the jurisdiction of the court which is wrong.”

Lawmaker Representing Kosofe Constituency II, Femi Saheed, said that the issues of frivolous suits are put in check, with a capital fine of N100 million, which I support. “Before you bring your frivolities, you will think twice. The filing process, which is now going to be electronically established, I believe is going to reduce costs, save time, and make our data more reliable.

“On the adjournment due date of the procedural, the lawyers will not be able to use their technicalities to seek more adjournment. This is a welcome bill and I believe all issues have been addressed before it goes to a public hearing.”

Speaker of the House, Obasa, described the bill as a welcome development, saying it would benefit the society.

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