Lawyers and litigants in Lagos State are currently facing serious delays in the filing of new cases at the state high court registry due to the collapse of the e-Payment platform.
The situation, which began two weeks ago, has resulted in frustrations in filing cases and getting them assigned to judges.
A lawyer, Wahab Abdullah, told LEADERSHIP that the technical issue has been ongoing for over two weeks and that all efforts to get the court’s authorities to resolve the problem have not yielded any positive results.
Abdullah said introducing an electronic filing system in Lagos courts has not significantly improved the filing procedure of cases as the processes are still cumbersome and slow.
In response to a message sent to his phone number, the chief registrar of the court, Tajudeen Elias, acknowledged the technical problem. He said the problem was being tackled.
Elias wrote, “We have heard about the complaints, and we will act promptly on it”.
Also, a source in the court’s registry, who did not want his name mentioned because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the issue started about two weeks ago.
The source, however, said that the court has put in place an alternative procedure to ease the payment of fees by lawyers.
He said, “Lawyers have been coming to the office to obtain a code with which they made payment into the Lagos judiciary account. This process will be in place until the issue is resolved.
At a Bench and Bar Forum held on July 29, 2023, the leader of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) team, Dr Babatunde Ajibade (SAN), told the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Kazeem Alogba, that the human interface in the JIS system of e-filing is frustrating the process of access to Justice.
He also stated that there must be the political will to support the system with functional infrastructure for optimal performance, given the position that Lagos State occupies in the judiciary in Nigeria.
In his response, the chief judge stated that he had heard of these complaints. But that no one had given him specific particulars of how cases were being delayed to enable him to deal with the situation decisively.
He said that the Governor of Lagos State is very concerned about the judiciary, and he takes issues relating to the administration of Justice as a top priority.
Justice Alogba also assured the lawyers that efforts are ongoing to improve the e-filing system.
The e-filing system, known as the Judicial Information System (JIS) was introduced by a former chief judge of the state, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, on September 24, 2013.
It introduced innovations such as easy management of cases for counsel, who could file claims from the comfort of their law chambers, online payment of necessary fees through a secure web portal and tracking of issues online
The JIS accepts the case fee electronically. Once case registration is successful, the system calculates the case fee automatically using court rules. The system also maintains all E-Payment transactions status and history.
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