Appeal Court’s modernisation leap

The modernization got impetus with a recent week-long study visit to the United Kingdom by a delegation of the justices of the court under the headship of the court’s acting president, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa.The choice of UK was due to the fact that Nigeria’s judicial system is more of a colonial transplantation whose roots […]

The modernization got impetus with a recent week-long study visit to the United Kingdom by a delegation of the justices of the court under the headship of the court’s acting president, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa.
The choice of UK was due to the fact that Nigeria’s judicial system is more of a colonial transplantation whose roots lie in the English legal traditions. It makes those experiences and lessons easily adaptable and transferrable to Nigeria.
The bid, if sustained, according to stakeholders in the justice sector, would not only underline the vision which the Nigerian judiciary aspires to but will also transfer from vision to reality, the long-awaited reform in the country’s justice sector which various committees have consistently advocated for.
Daily Trust gathered that appellate e-filing will arrive in Nigeria before this year ends, and that is when a revision to the appellate rules will make it mandatory for lawyers to file an electronic copy of all appellate briefs, reports and petitions for review.
The e-filing will be accomplished using the online electronic filing system developed for the appellate courts. The first version is to be a test pilot project for the Court of Appeal, Lagos Divisions.
In his report, a copy of which was made available to Daily Trust, Yusuf Abubakar Ibrahim, an expert who witnessed the study tour said that expected adjustments under the new rules; the filing of an electronic copy of all briefs, reports and petitions for review (and responses) would be made mandatory for lawyers.
He said that under the new rules, e-filed documents must be in Portable Document Format (PDF), adding that the courts database are available to the public online, adding that this would prove extremely useful to lawyers doing research on Nigerian law.

The system, according to him, will allow the user to search the database for particular terms or phrases and their connotations.
He said that the Court of Appeal will also develop and implement a second phase of automation.
 “This phase will encompass -electronic dissemination of orders, notices, and opinions; electronic filing of notices, motions, and other documents; implement interface between trial courts and appellate courts; and make electronic payment of appellate filing fees,” he said.
 It was gathered that the Court of Appeal, online appeal filling system is an essential component of the strategic plan for technology for the court.
Stakeholders said that the e-filing would transform the Court of Appeal from a paper-based process to an electronic environment, where interactions occur via Internet or automated voice-response with improved servicing time frames; e-filing system will be used by 90% of court staff and judicial officers and will transform the way all cases are received, adjudicated, communicated and disposed of.
This, according to them will significantly improve the quality of justice rendered in Nigeria’s trial courts by providing lawyers, judges and litigants with visibility and access to case information across all Nigerian courts. The highlights of the e-filing system include institutional filers (lawyers, etc.) transmit directly from their computer systems; lawyers can file via internet, tablets or kiosks; case records stored electronically; Nigerian Appeal Court can be accessed 24×7 from any location accessible through the internet; lawyers, litigants, justice partners, judicial officers and court staff can search across all case types for all Nigerian courts at the push of a button and better information drives more-informed decisions and reduces the risk of conflicting orders.
E-filler can also track, get court notices, and hearing dates over e-filling court portal.
The study programme, according to the report was tailored along the fundamental principles of modern judicial governance, drawing principally on the experiences of the UK judicial reform with concentrations on innovative use of technology in whole gamut of judicial practice, modern skills for appellate judges and strategy for development and change management.