A constitutional lawyer, Mr. Spurgeon Ataene, on Tuesday called for adoption of manual filing alongside electronic filing system of court processes so as to speed up justice delivery.
Ataene told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that relying on electronic filing of processes alone had caused hardships and disappointment to lawyers.
He called on the chief judge of Lagos State to encourage adoption of the hybrid process to cover lapses in sole digital filing.
“The present electronic filing system is unduly laboured and the hitches that attend this system were never contemplated from the start.
“The drivers of quick and efficacious justice delivery system meant well when they introduced electronic filing system but the process has been hamstrung by poor network in the registries occasioned by inadequate technology.
“At the inception, I acknowledged the altruism behind it, but cautioned that this should go side-by-side with manual filing.
“I said this from the background of a country that is just 20 years old in the use of ICT; today, filing has become a nightmare,” he said.
According to Ataene, sometimes, it takes about two days to file an innocuous application.
He blamed it on the digital process as well as unreliable electricity supply.
“Electricity is not reliable and the backup power generators also develop faults from time to time;’ thus, frustrating lawyers in the discharge of their professional duties to clients.
“In the new year, I urge the chief judge of Lagos State to establish more functional registries.
“The new court complexes built to expand and deepen justice delivery system cannot function properly if, for instance, lawyers would have to move from Sabo or Osborne to TBS just to file a court process.
“Indeed, there is nothing wrong with filing originating processes in these places if registries are created and equipped,” he said.
Ataene also urged that assignment of cases which, he said, could sometimes take three weeks, be further decentralized and be done to senior judges.
“The new court rooms should be given the mandate to assume administrative duties in addition to their judicial functions,” he said. (NAN).
