Discussions have commenced on the possibility of establishing resident Court of Appeal (COA) in the country, Attorney General (AG) John Muria (Jnr) has said.
He said, this is for the Court of Appeal can sit whenever there is a need and ordinary Solomon Islanders can have their matters dealt with rather than having to wait for scheduled sittings twice a year.
The Court of Appeal sits only twice a year before a three panel of judges, mostly from oversea judges.
“The scheduled sitting of the Court of Appeal twice a year is counterproductive,” Mr Muria (Jnr) said in his address at the opening of the 2023 Legal Year.
“With the increase of number of filed Court of Appeal Cases, the backlog of Court of Appeal is becoming a concern,” he added.
Mr Muria (Jnr) said he has received representations from Legal Counsel and Court Users as to the concerns regarding the time taken to have their disputes settled.
“Discussions have been commenced and are ongoing on the possibility of the setting of a resident Court of Appeal in Solomon Islands so that Court of Appeal can sit whenever there is a need and ordinary Solomon Islanders can have their matters dealt with rather than having to wait for scheduled sittings twice a year.
“In a rapidly growing population, it is only fitting that there is established resident Court of Appeal so our citizens do not have to wait long to have their disputes fully adjudicated and determined by the Highest Court in the land.
Adding on, Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer said despite the challenges of Covid-19 community transmission in early last year, they were able to convene four sittings of one week each in an effort to accommodate the availability of the oversea judges and President for the hearings.
“We managed to do this successfully and completed a total of 40 cases,” Sir Albert said.
Sir Albert added that this works out to a pleasing clearance rate of 102 percent in 2022, but when compared with the clearance rate for 2021, it was down by 6 percent from 108 percent.
He said the number of cases filed in 2022 was 39, civil being 24 and criminal consisting of 15 appeals.
“As at the end of 2022, there remain 57 cases outstanding.
“With two sittings scheduled for this year, we are hopeful we will make further inroads into disposing of more cases and reducing the backlog.
“In terms of challenges, as I highlighted in my address, securing sufficient funds to enable us to convene the Appeal Sittings as scheduled continues to be an ongoing but unnecessary challenge for the National Judiciary.
“The second matter is related to compliance issues by counsel not adhering to direction orders and ensuring that time lines are not delayed so that appeals are ready for listing and hearing.
Sir Albert said despite repeated reminders, direction orders continue to be ignored and resulting in delays in the listing and hearing of appeals.
“Counsel are being urged to treat direction orders 9 as mandatory to avoid unnecessary delays in having their client’s cases being prioritised.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
Solomon Star, Newsroom
