MY OBSERVATIONS AND OR RECOMMENDATIONS ON JUSTICE DELIVERY IN LAGOS AND OTHER CONNECTED PURPOSES.

FIRST OBSERVATION: WHAT WE HAVE NOW IS NOT E-FILING. WHAT WE HAVE IS AN E-DELAY.

The e-filing system should be a process where you do not have to be physical in court before you could do anything. Save for depositions which could also be done before any notary public or authorised person. 

The idea of coming to court registry to file a process, access the process, make payment, and being referred to the e-delay section, sorry e-filing section for you to scan, make another round of payment, and then a tag is placed on the process before you now take it back for stamping and onward dropping at the record section is nothing but a total waste of time and resource which is a clog to the wheels of justice. 

What we have now is just an electronic process to save the processes to the cloud. This can be done in the alternative by making sure extra copies are filed for the consumption of those employed to scan into the cloud. 

How do you have an urgent application that has to face this clog for over one week before it is being sent to court for a date, and that is if you get a date on same timeously. 

Cases take weeks before being assigned and litigants are losing faith. Even lawyers are getting tired. 

As I have earlier posited, we can have an e-filing without leaving our offices and then get a date for the hearing of your matter without seeing the registry. Ask how it is done at the Ecowas Court and other advanced countries, Tanzania, UK, USA, etc. Senior lawyers in the profession know the truth and they see these things far across the shores of our country. If we want a change, we can get it. Let us be determined to do what is right. 

We should invest in the judiciary and implement guidelines and or rules that will make justice delivery effective. There are better ways to achieve desired revenue. When a system is seamless and effortlessly free, you will earn more as a counsel and the system will also get its desired revenue.

For the avoidance of doubt, below is also an extract from the observations of a learned friend, Udems Esq., on e-filing.

“E-Filing” means from your office, you send the processes, pay filing and service fees, and get your suit number assigned to your case the same day.

If you or your secretary has to be physically present in the court premises for any aspect of the filing, even if it is the payment of fees, then that is not e-filing.

The Lagos State Judiciary is very far from e-filing properly so-called.

In the Lagos State Judiciary, there is what they call “temporary suit number” and “permanent suit number.” Why would that duplication be? Why can’t you assign a permanent suit number to a suit as soon as it is filed? Why would I have to wait for two to three weeks to get a permanent suit number? And thereafter wait for another one to three weeks to get the case assigned you a judge/court; and another one or two weeks to get the papers served (sorry for you in the hands of a bailiff); and then a 42-day period (in Lagos) for the defendant to react? Most times, the defendants come out of time for loads of reasons. Before the new filing system (so-called “e-system”) was introduced in Lagos, Lawyers used to file their cases and get suit numbers assigned instantly — same day. 

The new system, that was purportedly brought in to “accelerate justice” has, in reality, dragged the administration of justice far backward, leaving us far worse than it had met us.

SECOND OBSERVATION: THE RIGOURS OF MAN-MADE AND SELF-INFLICTED DELAYS IN THE COURSE OF GETTING JUSTICE. A NEED FOR A TOTAL OVERHAUL.

The Court (Ikeja Court to be specific) / Cash Registry for filing fresh cases is not helping matters and no thanks to the unhelpful rules of court and practice procedure. 

First is the issue of pre-action notice, where your filing will be truncated and would be told to go back and spiral bind. 

The second is to insist that the endorsement page and the first page of the writ have to be together on the same page. Failure of which same is further rejected. When did all these start? And when will it end? Not with the plenty grammar on the writ format itself. 

A writ, in practice, ought to be prepared and issued by the Registrar ONLY after receipt of the Claimant's Statement of Claim as submitted either by the claimant himself or his counsel.

Something must be done.

THIRD OBSERVATION: DEPRIVING LITIGANTS OF THE FRUITS OF JUDGEMENT BY USE OF EXTRAJUDICIAL MEANS.

For litigants, enjoying the fruits of judgment is crucial and uncompromising. We believe that a key overriding function of the judicial process is to enable the judgment creditor to reap the fruits of judgment with every sense of due satisfaction and where necessary have compensation, performance, compliance, and restitution. Nevertheless, there have been instances such as this, where judgments of courts are either frustrated and/or ignored. Such challenges in the judicial process are overwhelming experiences for litigants and indeed a stigma for the justice delivery sector.

It is trite that even our Courts have a duty not to deprive a successful litigant of the fruit of his litigation. This can be found in the case of  A.E. S.S. Ltd v. Aina Adeosun & Sons Ltd (1993) 5 NWLR (Pt 293) 377 @ 382. This duty with respect finds legal empowerment in the existing Judgment Enforcement Procedure Rules such as the Sheriff and Civil Process Act where the means of enforcement can be achieved to prevent extrajudicial means of enforcement.

It is even a settled law that a court of law has the jurisdiction to protect its judgment from being ridiculed or disparaged. Therefore, where an application intends to make nonsense of its judgment it must stoutly stand against that line of action. Okoya v. Santilli (1991) 7 NWLR (Pt 206) 753 @ 770.  If the courts can be bound by this, why should a judicial officer or staff be seen to be a hindrance to a creditor in reaping the fruits of judgment? Their discretion (staffs of court) in line with the law is very paramount here, and this is absent at present.

It is my final submission on this, that the acts of truncating the process of enforcement, especially where one is within the ambit of the law are very dangerous. It is also sad that it appears to be seen that the courts hold judgment creditors to ransom based on a notice of appeal when the position of the law has always been that a notice of appeal does not and should never operate as a stay of execution. 

I make bold to further conclude, that in any society where rule of law thrives, regard for justice and the judicial system is paramount. Enforcing the judgment of courts quickly, conscientiously, and easily within any society is regarded as the key component of stabilizing the equilibrium of society. Perhaps, allowing situations like this, which deprive the benefits of judgment encourages resort to self-help, and same would do more harm than good. Most especially in a democratic society, respect for rule of law and established techniques ought to wade off any contrary operations.

Olajide Abiodun Esq.

(Master of the Rolls)

21/2/2022