Judiciary want errant lawyers fined for skipping court

PIC: The Jinja High Court resident Judge, Justice Eva Luswata (centre) taking Musota and Chibita (right) at the court premises after the Wednesday meeting. (Credit: Jackie Nambogga)

CASE BACKLOG

JINJA - Judicial officers from Busoga sub-region have attributed the case backlog to lawyers fond of skipping court sessions.

According to Samuel Munobe, the Iganga chief magistrate, the practice has led to continuous adjournments, resulting in case backlog.

Munobe cited cases that require bail, saying lawyers are quick at filing for bail applications and once their prayers are granted, they begin asking for adjournments whenever they appear in court.

He was briefing the backlog monitoring committee led by Justice Stephen Musota of the Court of Appeal during a meeting at the Jinja High Court on Wednesday.

Andrew Khaukha, the Judiciary technical advisor, said they were on a fact-finding mission to establish the progress of the implementation of the case backlog reduction strategy.

The strategy involves having a new reporting format in line with the templates developed by the committee; a work plan on backlog case disposal on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

It also spells out use of the various innovations such as the plea bargain, small claims and alternative dispute resolutions such as mediation, arbitration and court users meetings, among others.

Sam Wairagala, the committee's secretary said: "Much as we have a problem of backlog, it is not insurmountable, it is something that can be addressed and the solution is with us."

In order to curb the vice, Munobe suggested that such errant lawyers be subjected to a penalty by paying a fine to other parties involved in the case.

"We must be proactive and craft solutions to our challenges, if one is told to cater for costs to another party for non-attendance, it will get into your nerve and will not do it again. I believe this is punitive enough and it is allowed under the law," he said.


Munobe's suggestion was backed by several officers, who said this would greatly make the lawyers ktake court business more seriously.

However, a lawyer, who declined to be named, faulted the judiciary for delaying rulings, saying it was a common practice and cross cutting at all court levels.

Meanwhile Margret Nakigudde, the Busoga regional state attorney asked the Director of Public Prosecution, Justice Mike Chibita, who is part of the committee to come up with a yard stick of handling minor cases without necessarily being taken to courts.

Nakigudde said they needed guidance from the DPP on how to deal with minor cases that could be resolved without being prosecuted.

In response, Chibita said prosecutors have discretion of weeding out cases provided their decisions do not harm involved parties.

"Sometimes these decisions are seeds of complaints, but it is at your discretion to determine the case, if it requires compensation where parties have agreed, you take a decision," Chibita clarified.

Amon Mugezi, the Jinja Grade 1 magistrate said they had a case backlog of 1,521, of which 337 files were before the chief magistrate, while 437 with the Grade 1 magistrates.

Mugezi said 118 cases were still pending before the chief magistrate from 2008 to 2015.

The Jinja High Court resident judge, Justice Eva Luswata, said the plea bargain approach was yielding results in criminal sessions.


Jinja High Court deputy registrar Jesse Byaruhanga said they were handling case backlog from 2014 to 2017.