A few months ago, both the Lagos State High Court and the Federal High Court with particular reference to the Lagos Division were involved in the massive transfer of judges and re-assignment of cases.
These actions as could be expected resulted in a variety of situations some positive others not so positive, a mixed bag of convenience, inconvenience are even hardships. The first inconvenience experienced by counsel and litigants alike is locating the exact court room of the judges before whom there are appearing. This is in spite of the copious details of the new arrangement of court sittings as set out in a circular under the hand of the Chief Judge dated 16th March 2010. It has taken a few months and several weeks for lawyers to get the exact location of the judges before whom they are appearing. Even now it is still common place for a lawyer to ask another; where is Justice X Court now? Where does Justice Y now sit? Or for a litigant to ask where is Justice Z's court?
Next is the issue of actual transfer of cases, the convenience or hardship it has caused, where for instance a matter in the Lagos State High Court at TBS was part-heard and could not be concluded before the transfer took effect the parties and counsel who have had to drive from the Mainland to Lagos at every trial day are certainly pleased now that the matter is now at Ikeja. On the other hand, the inconvenience of having to travel to Ikorodu from Lagos Mainland for a case that was initially at Ikeja or worse still as in a case I am involved to travel to Badagry.
In respect of the Federal High Court Lagos, a Part heard criminal matter that was at the point of conclusion before final address has now been kept in abeyance by adjournment sine die awaiting the necessary directive from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for the conclusion of the case in Lagos since the trial judge has now been transferred to Abuja. Yet, the subject matter of the action is in Lagos, and none of the parties has any intention to travel to Abuja to conclude the matter.
In the meantime at both the Lagos State High Court and the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court scores of files and cases are yet to be re-assigned to specific courts more than 3 months after the massive transfer and re-assignment took effect. This is in spite of the spirited efforts of the administration arms of the judiciaries in question. All this contributes in no small measure to the delay in the administration of justice.
A related development even if in the lighter mood is how the transfer and re-assignment has exposed both counsel and litigants alike to the different approaches of different judges. A few true life examples will illustrate this point. In some of the courts some of the judges allow the particular counsel involved in the particular cases to sit in the inner Bar apparently for the purposes of making them speak audibly into the microphone for purposes of recording the proceedings. So imagine counsel who were used to this approach before the first judge who has now been transferred taking their place in the inner Bar to conduct their cases before the new judge only to get a sharp reprimand from the judge freshly assigned to the case who wondered aloud at the presumption of counsel who are not silk who take it upon themselves to sit in the inner Bar. Unfortunately his Lordship did not enquire from the Bar the reason behind this strange behaviour before forming an opinion.
In yet another instance where counsel sought to take his witness through the long drawn examination in chief the preference of the former judge in a court the newly assigned judge cut him short by directing counsel's mind to the provisions of the new rules on the conduct of examination in chief under order 32 of the 2004 Rules which consists of merely adopting witnesses deposition. Counsel's attempt to explain to his Lordship that he was merely trying to play safe by adopting the procedure preferred by the former judge merely irritated his Lordship who expressed the opinion that counsel will do well to familiarize himself with the rules rather than give unconvincing reasons for his incompetence. On other hand there have been instances of counsel who did not impress the new judges in certain courts by their insistence on following the new rules in the manner of the judges who formerly manned the courts. Their Lordship felt their approach was lazy. Indicating their preference for the rigorous old fashioned examination in chief. Interesting studies in contrast!.
The different peculiarities of each judge also provides interesting studies of human character; the patient judge, the not so patient judge, the stickler for the rules and procedure, the 9 O'clock judge, the flexible Judge etc. Still talking about different approaches, while some judges allow any counsel even litigant to remain in their court rooms during pre-trial even if they are not directly involved in the pre-trial conference so long as they do not disturb the court session, yet others insist only parties and the counsel directly involved in the pre-trial Conference to remain in court. Then it is also obvious that some judges are still settling down in their new divisions that is their new administrative divisions; Revenue, General Civil, Family and Probate, Land, Criminal etc. But in accordance with their status as repository of law and procedure; they are adjusting very fast as we the counsel who are appearing before them. After all as an old relation was wont to say no one brought anything from Heaven we all learnt things here on earth.
On the whole in spite of the expected hiccups the process of massive transfer of judges and re-assignment of cases has been by and large effective with all the various stake holders involved, the court and judges, lawyers and litigants alike making the necessary adjustments and it is hoped that by the time we all resume from the annual vacation all the noticeable bottlenecks would have eased off and the system would start to work much more smoothly again.
However, it has been suggested in some quarters that to lessen the normal problems associated with such a serious exercise in future the exercise should be carried out towards the end of the legal year in early July to take effect on the resumption of a new legal year late August and early September perhaps the relevant authorities will look closely at this proposal for such exercise in the future.
These actions as could be expected resulted in a variety of situations some positive others not so positive, a mixed bag of convenience, inconvenience are even hardships. The first inconvenience experienced by counsel and litigants alike is locating the exact court room of the judges before whom there are appearing. This is in spite of the copious details of the new arrangement of court sittings as set out in a circular under the hand of the Chief Judge dated 16th March 2010. It has taken a few months and several weeks for lawyers to get the exact location of the judges before whom they are appearing. Even now it is still common place for a lawyer to ask another; where is Justice X Court now? Where does Justice Y now sit? Or for a litigant to ask where is Justice Z's court?
Next is the issue of actual transfer of cases, the convenience or hardship it has caused, where for instance a matter in the Lagos State High Court at TBS was part-heard and could not be concluded before the transfer took effect the parties and counsel who have had to drive from the Mainland to Lagos at every trial day are certainly pleased now that the matter is now at Ikeja. On the other hand, the inconvenience of having to travel to Ikorodu from Lagos Mainland for a case that was initially at Ikeja or worse still as in a case I am involved to travel to Badagry.
In respect of the Federal High Court Lagos, a Part heard criminal matter that was at the point of conclusion before final address has now been kept in abeyance by adjournment sine die awaiting the necessary directive from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for the conclusion of the case in Lagos since the trial judge has now been transferred to Abuja. Yet, the subject matter of the action is in Lagos, and none of the parties has any intention to travel to Abuja to conclude the matter.
In the meantime at both the Lagos State High Court and the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court scores of files and cases are yet to be re-assigned to specific courts more than 3 months after the massive transfer and re-assignment took effect. This is in spite of the spirited efforts of the administration arms of the judiciaries in question. All this contributes in no small measure to the delay in the administration of justice.
A related development even if in the lighter mood is how the transfer and re-assignment has exposed both counsel and litigants alike to the different approaches of different judges. A few true life examples will illustrate this point. In some of the courts some of the judges allow the particular counsel involved in the particular cases to sit in the inner Bar apparently for the purposes of making them speak audibly into the microphone for purposes of recording the proceedings. So imagine counsel who were used to this approach before the first judge who has now been transferred taking their place in the inner Bar to conduct their cases before the new judge only to get a sharp reprimand from the judge freshly assigned to the case who wondered aloud at the presumption of counsel who are not silk who take it upon themselves to sit in the inner Bar. Unfortunately his Lordship did not enquire from the Bar the reason behind this strange behaviour before forming an opinion.
In yet another instance where counsel sought to take his witness through the long drawn examination in chief the preference of the former judge in a court the newly assigned judge cut him short by directing counsel's mind to the provisions of the new rules on the conduct of examination in chief under order 32 of the 2004 Rules which consists of merely adopting witnesses deposition. Counsel's attempt to explain to his Lordship that he was merely trying to play safe by adopting the procedure preferred by the former judge merely irritated his Lordship who expressed the opinion that counsel will do well to familiarize himself with the rules rather than give unconvincing reasons for his incompetence. On other hand there have been instances of counsel who did not impress the new judges in certain courts by their insistence on following the new rules in the manner of the judges who formerly manned the courts. Their Lordship felt their approach was lazy. Indicating their preference for the rigorous old fashioned examination in chief. Interesting studies in contrast!.
The different peculiarities of each judge also provides interesting studies of human character; the patient judge, the not so patient judge, the stickler for the rules and procedure, the 9 O'clock judge, the flexible Judge etc. Still talking about different approaches, while some judges allow any counsel even litigant to remain in their court rooms during pre-trial even if they are not directly involved in the pre-trial conference so long as they do not disturb the court session, yet others insist only parties and the counsel directly involved in the pre-trial Conference to remain in court. Then it is also obvious that some judges are still settling down in their new divisions that is their new administrative divisions; Revenue, General Civil, Family and Probate, Land, Criminal etc. But in accordance with their status as repository of law and procedure; they are adjusting very fast as we the counsel who are appearing before them. After all as an old relation was wont to say no one brought anything from Heaven we all learnt things here on earth.
On the whole in spite of the expected hiccups the process of massive transfer of judges and re-assignment of cases has been by and large effective with all the various stake holders involved, the court and judges, lawyers and litigants alike making the necessary adjustments and it is hoped that by the time we all resume from the annual vacation all the noticeable bottlenecks would have eased off and the system would start to work much more smoothly again.
However, it has been suggested in some quarters that to lessen the normal problems associated with such a serious exercise in future the exercise should be carried out towards the end of the legal year in early July to take effect on the resumption of a new legal year late August and early September perhaps the relevant authorities will look closely at this proposal for such exercise in the future.
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