More efficiency sought from judges

JUDGES need to spend more time in court so that cases are dealt with quickly, says Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika.
Sir Gibbs, addressing the legal year opening in Port Moresby yesterday, stressed on the rate which judges had been dealing with cases before the National and Supreme Courts in Waigani.
“In order for us to complete our cases, judges need to be spending a bit more time in court to dispose of the matters,” Sir Gibbs said.
“I have yet to go through the recordings recorded by our court reporting services.
“I will be asking them to provide a list of hours that each of us (judge) put when we deal with cases.
“Therefore, I’m going to be getting into these things as to why we are not producing the goods that PNG expect of us to do.”
Sir Gibbs said that though there were many judges available, cases were still not dealt with in a timely manner.
“Why is it that we have a large number of judges and yet we are unable to complete the cases that are filed in any one given year?
“I need answers judges and lawyers.
“If we do not do our work honestly and faithfully and in a timely manner, we could lose the public, we could lose the country.
“My request to all of us judges, and to the magistrates and lawyers, is to work smarter.
“We need to discipline ourselves to work harder. We need to discipline ourselves to sit longer and deal with more cases.
“This is a tall order that I’m asking for all of us to dig deep into ensuring that our workload is cleared. Our clearance rate is not good.
“The statistics do not support the fact that we we’re performing.”