Judge: Get legal papers

 The National Court in Kokopo was not able to hear cases last week as most lawyers did not have practising certificates.

Resident judge Salatiel Lenalia raised this concern when officially declaring the opening of the legal year in East New Britain last Friday.

“To members of the legal fraternity, when we commenced court circuit on Monday, only one lawyer had his practising certificate,” Lenalia said.

“I was informed by my senior officer that other lawyers did not have their practising certificate so we were not able to hear cases listed for last week.

The National was reliably informed that the only lawyer that had a practising certificate was the senior lawyer with the Public Prosecutor’s office in Kokopo, Lukara Rangan while other lawyers with the Public Solicitors office were without practising certificates.

He urged lawyers to work together with judges to reduce the province’s current criminal list which stood at 148 with 110 remanded and 38 on bail. 

Lenalia called on the lawyers who did not have their practicing certificate to make an effort to get it done by the weekend so they could proceed into the new week.