06 Feb 2014

Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo on February 4 revealed that the Administration of Justice (AoJ) will amend rules of the High Court to eliminate forum shopping by clients or their lawyers.

Speaking at the opening of the legal year 2014 in Gaborone, Justice Dibotelo warned that if not arrested, the issue of forum shopping would damage the independence and unshaken impartiality that earned the judiciary international acclamation.

He revealed that in order to curb and discourage the worrying practice of forum shopping, rule 12 of order 6 will be substituted with a new rule, which when paraphrased provides that where the defendant’s address for services is within a radius of 100 kilometres from the High Court registry issuing the writ of summons, the time limited for appearance shall be 14 court days after service of the writ and 21 court days where the defendant’s address for service is outside 100 kilometres.

“The amendments will be removing specific mention of or reference to the High Court registry at Lobatse and Francistown,” he said.

In addition, said Justice Dibotelo, rule 13 of order 6 will be substituted with a new rule that provides, amongst others, that the appropriate office for entering an appearance to defend shall in all cases be the High Court registry issuing the writ of summons.

The court will also introduce rule of 15 of order 6 which provides that once registered a case may not be withdrawn without leave of the judge to whom it has been allocated and upon good cause being shown. The Chief Justice also stated that a new rule 16 of order 6 will be introduced providing that the same cause shall not be registered at more than one High Court registry.

“We are optimistic that these amendments will significantly reduce the incidents of forum shopping, and we implore other stakeholders to appreciate and embrace this initiative for the benefit of everyone,” he said.

Justice Dibotelo also revealed that the AoJ will approach government for funds to procure and install real time reporting equipment in all the courts.

He said the equipment, though expensive, will permanently rid the courts of delayed records of proceedings, a problem which has been a source of frustration for a long time. Currently, records are transcribed by court reporters who spend the greater part of the time in court recording proceedings verbatim as required by law. For her part,

Attorney General Dr Athaliah Molokomme said the staff complement of the Anti-Corruption Unit at the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is 10 lawyers who were deployed from within the already overstretched establishment of the DPP. She said the ratio of cases on average is 163 cases per prosecutor which is indeed an overload.

“This contributes to delays, leads to low staff morale and has slowed down the takeover of prosecutions by the DPP from the police. The DPP has introduced court designated prosecutors, with senior prosecutors expected to monitor both the workload and supervision of junior officers to ensure proper handling of cases,” she said.

She said steps will also be taken to further strengthen the Anti-Corruption Unit, including the DPP’s outstations, to ensure that they are staffed with attorneys that have the appropriate skills. However, she said the retention of middle level lawyers in government continues to be challenging, and that government continues to address issues of staff welfare, remuneration and general conditions of service for government lawyers.

She also explained that government is making progress on the drafting of the Legal Aid regulations, which will facilitate the commencement of the Legal Aid Act and the transformation of the Legal Aid Botswana into an independent statutory body.

Dr Molokomme pointed out that the amendment of the Legal Practitioners Act will also enable non-profit organisations to employ legal practitioners and establish law clinics certified by the Law Society of Botswana. It will also provide for a minimum of 40 hours pro bono service per year per legal practitioner. ENDS