Lagos CJ, Justice Kazeem Alogba, Urges Senior Lawyers To Provide Facilities To Help Juniors Adapt To Remote Hearing

* Lagos State Ministry Of Justice Want To Make Sure That The Administration Of Justice In The State Is Not Affected By The Pandemic — Lagos State AG, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN)

Chief Judge of Lagos State Judiciary, Justice Kazeem Alogba, has urged lawyers to help those who are working with them (junior lawyers) adapt to virtual hearings by providing the needed facilities for them.

The Chief Judge made this observation while speaking during the virtual summit which was organized by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the Commercial Regulatory and Investment Disputes, best practice (CRID-Law Net) and Justice Reform Project (JRP).

According to him, once counsel in large number are able to latch on to the methodology of virtual hearing, even if the citizen cannot have a compliant phone or gadget to partake in this kind of hearing, the lawyer can call him to his chambers and both of them can be together, at least he will be able to latch on facility of the lawyer and then the proceeding can go on. He said that we are all aware of what led to this practice direction and the need to resolve it therein, but he had been working with the Attorney General of the state just before the pandemic started, thus, in view of the enormity of our cases, it is also detrimental to the Lagos State and the entire nation, so they are working on how courts can sit physically and thereafter we came up with the remote direction.

“Some matters are bordering on constitutional flavour particularly criminal matters where the liberty of citizens will be affected. We need to find a way to determine these cases. The objective is clearly stated there, for ‘timely and efficient disposal of cases’, use suitable technology to determine proceedings and efficient use of available judicial and administrative resources.

“We also provided electronic filing of processes. Realizing how far we had gone, I want to say that this area had engendered a lot of critique from learned colleagues. Electronic filing of processes was an alternative that could be done in the court room knowing the state of our technology and infrastructure we have on ground, not only as it is affecting the judiciary but also as affecting lawyers and other stakeholders too particularly citizens who may not be opportune to have the kind of technology to enable them do the filing electronically,” he said.

The Attorney- General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), on the other hand emphasized that the State Ministry of Justice want to make sure that the administration of Justice in the state is not affected by the pandemic. He noted that the Lagos Practice Direction was the first in Nigeria to deal with remote sitting of courts.
Tunde Fagbohunlu (SAN) who anchored the programme, then said that it is now left for stakeholders to brainstorm on ways to ensure an effective and efficient administration of justice system during and after COVID-19 with the experience put in place with the use of technology.

President of CRID-Law Net, Mr Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) also added that CRID-Law Net is a non-advocacy group that promotes and advancing best practices in resolution of commercial disputes.
According to him, the flagship of this project is the administration of Civil Justice Bill. The bill has been introduced to a number of states in the Federation but in particular, Ekiti State has taken the lead by enacting the bill into law in 2019.

“The Federal Attorney-General is currently looking into the bill. We are hopeful that it will soon be introduced to National Assembly. We are looking forward to Attorney-General of Lagos State to adopting and enacting it into law.”

Dignitaries who attended the summit are Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), Justice Hakeem Oshodi, Mrs Miannaya Essien, Dan Wilmort from the LawFirm of Stewarts in the United Kingdom, and President of Lagos Chambers of Commerce, Mrs Toki Mabogunje. the President of CRID-Law Net, Mr Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), and Mrs Funke Agbor (SAN), Olasupo Shasore (SAN),