Public Solicitor’s office short of lawyers

THE Public Solicitor’s office is experiencing a shortage of lawyers to help out courts in sorting out cases quickly, a senior magistrate says.
Waigani Committal Court magistrate Cosmas Bidar said yesterday the reason why defendants turned up in court without their lawyers from the Public Solicitor’s office was because State lawyers were attending to cases in other provincial centres.
Bidar said most of the cases involving State lawyers from the Public Solicitor’s office were adjourned due to the limited number of lawyers attending to these cases. “You would have noticed that the Public Solicitor’s office is stretched at the moment as many of the lawyers are attending to cases in Madang, Goroka, Mt Hagen and Kokopo.
That’s why they were not available.”
Bidar raised the matter when adjourning a case against a Henry Lawa who is still waiting for his lawyer to make submissions before the court.
The court has adjourned Lawa’s case to next month with bail extended.