District Courts set K50,000 for civil matters
By JASON SOM KAUT
DISTRICT courts have been empowered to award up to K50,000 in damages for civil matters.
Their jurisdiction limit for civil matters will further increase to K100,000 after five years as agreed by Chief Justice Mari Kapi and Chief Magistrate John Numapo.
They can also give up to 10 years imprisonment for offences.
Previously, they had a limit of K10,000 in civil matters and could only hear two offences under the Criminal Code upon directive from the public solicitor.
Mr Numapo revealed this during the opening of the three-day 8th senior provincial magistrates Annual conference in Lae on Wednesday opened by Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Dr Alan Marat.
“Criminal jurisdiction should increase so that district courts can trial summarily… and have concurrent jurisdiction with the National Court,” Mr Numapo said.
Under the changes contained in the “white paper” on law and justice for magisterial services, matters with up to 10 years imprisonment under the Criminal Code can be heard by the district courts.
The effect of this is that only the most serious cases including rape and murder would be heard by the National Court.
Mr Numapo revealed plans to recruit six more magistrates this year in anticipation of the increasing workload.
Some of the other priorities highlighted by the chief magistrate include the creation of a separate land court division, review of salary terms and conditions of employment for magistrates and support staff, procurement of houses for magistrates, recruitment of new magistrates, LLG elections, improvement of district court registries, continued judicial training for magistrates and increase of court circuit programmes.
Mr Numapo said a separate land court division would help reduce the backlog of land matters.
The conference will have presentations of annual reports by senior provincial magistrates and the official launching of the registry improvement programme (RIP) that had been successfully trialled in Mt Hagen and Lae.
The RIP will this year be rolled out to Kokopo and the National Capital District (NCD).
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