PAPUA New Guinea has three new acting Supreme and National Court judges. They are Pomat Paliau, Colin Makail and Nemo Yalo, who have collectively served the legal professions for 50 years.
The three will be acting judges for 12 months, Minister for Justice Dr Allan Marat announced in a statement yesterday.
The appointment of the three new acting judges was made by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) last Dec 11 and announced on Dec 30 by Dr Marat, who is also the chairman of the JLSC. 
Mr Paliau, aged 53, comes from Pere village in Manus province. He has practised law for the past 30 years.
He obtained his Laws degree from the University of PNG in 1976 and between 1977 and 1990, he served as a legal officer in the State Solicitor’s office in Port Moresby. In 1990 he was appointed State Solicitor.
Mr Paliau also served as secretary to the Law Reform Commission between 1982 and 1983 and was a member of the Defence Force Board of Inquiry in 1989 which investigated all aspects of the PNG Defence Force and presented its report to the Parliament.
Between Feb 7 and June 18, 1990, Mr Paliau served as acting secretary for Justice and was confirmed as the Secretary for Justice on June 19, 1990. He served in that capacity until May 14, 1993.
He then went into private practice from July 1994 until March 2005 when he established Paliau Lawyers law firm in Manus province.
On March 21, 2005, he was appointed legal officer to the Manus provincial government, and had held that position until his appointment.
Mr Makail is aged 36 and comes from Aitape in Sandaun province. He has practised law for 13 years.
He obtained his law degree from the University of PNG in 1994. After he was admitted to practise law, he was employed by the State Solicitors Office from 1994 to 1999. Whilst with the State Solicitor’s office, he was sent to Sydney where he was on job attachment practising commercial litigation with a private law firm of Mallesons Stephens Jacques Solicitors from February to May 1999. Between 1999 and December 2002, he practised law as a senior associate with Murray & Associates Lawyers in Port Moresby. From 2003 to the time of his appointment as judge, Mr Makail worked at O’Brien’s Lawyers in Port Moresby as a senior associate.
Mr Yalo, 39, comes from Erave in Southern Highlands province. He gained his law degree on Feb 6, 1999 after studying law at the University of PNG and Bond University in Queensland, Australia.
He was admitted to practise law in November 2004 and was employed at the Ombudsman Commission as a legal officer; and later as a senior legal officer and counsel to the commission. On Aug 23, 2004, Mr Yalo was appointed counsel to the Commission, a position he held until the current appointment.
“In his capacity within the OC, Mr Yalo has prepared many important constitutional cases for litigation in the National and Supreme Courts and argued some of those cases, including the special Supreme Court reference last November on referral of constitutional office-holders by the Public Prosecutor,” Dr Marat said.
He said the three men had satisfied the required qualification and work experience to be appointed to higher courts.
He said the appointments were made under s170(2) of the Constitution, which provides for appointment of acting judges to deal with increasing workload and backlog cases.
“Their appointments will take effect next month,” Dr Marat said.
The National was unable to reach the three new judges to get their comments about their appointments.