Respect court: Judge

 By CHARLES MOI

JUSTICE Sir Bernard Sakora says people should respect the court and its officers, which include lawyers. 

Sir Bernard was responding to the alleged assault of lawyer McRonald Nale by a group of people at the Waigani court car park on Monday. 

He said a verbal or physical attack on a lawyer appearing before his court was serious because it concerned their safety and well-being.  He said the car park in Waigani seemed to be where lawyers and parties litigated outside court, and  which sometimes led to physical confrontation. 

The court recalled a case yesterday for mention to note its displeasure at the incident at the car park. 

The case involved a compensation claim by Robert Kopaol, represented by lawyer Philip Waraniki,  for the death of his son in a road accident. Nale is representing the driver, John Nahare. 

The case returns to court on March 4. Nale thanked Sir Bernard for the comments and said he had reported the incident to the police. 

Sir Bernard said the incident should be dealt with by the proper authority as demanded by law.  

The court on Monday had accepted Waraniki’s submission for an adjournment so that the parties could negotiate having the matter settled out of court.  

But Nale was instructed by his client to move an application to have the case dismissed.

Sir Bernard said Nale could come to the court before March 4 to move his application to dismiss the proceedings.  

He encouraged the lawyers to discuss the case as professional colleagues before returning to court.