East Sepik witnesses opening of legal year

By ROSELYN ELLISON
PEOPLE in East Sepik witnessed a ceremony to mark the opening of the 2013 legal year. A service was held at the Wirui Catholic church in Wewak.
Wewak resident judge Justice Nicholas Kirriwom and acting judge Justice Iova Geita led state lawyers, members of the disciplined forces, Wewak magistrate court employees and magistrates at the ceremony.
Justice Kirriwom told more than 500 people that national judicial services embraced the government’s decentralisation drive.
He said national court registries were opened in the three main centres – Lae, Mt Hagen and Rabaul – with relevant law offices.
“In the 1990s, a few more provinces saw the need to have the presence of superior court in their own towns so places such as Goroka, Madang, Kimbe and Wabag were opened,” Kirriwom said.   
He said recently more provinces had joined –Chimbu, Southern Highlands and Milne Bay among them.
This year, Wewak and Buka are being added.
Kirriwom said there were now 30 judges serving the superior court and out of these, six were acting judges. Half of them will be serving in the provinces while the other half will be in Waigani.
He said in places where there were no judges, sub-registries of the National Court had been set up so documents could be filed.
“Sub-registries are now planned for Maprik, Vanimo and Aitape,” Kirriwom said.
He said Wewak was identified as having a very busy court because of the volume of criminal cases generated in Wewak, Maprik and Angoram.
“There will be no more court circuits conducted out of Waigani as a new system of case management is now introduced for trials commencing this year, based on docketing system.
“With this system each judge is assigned a case track or a location that he manages and he deals with every case from start to finish,” Kirriwom said.
“Under this system, Geita and I have been assigned the responsibility of hearing cases in East and West Sepik and Manus.”