Lawyers protest some judicial officers’ conduct
Malawi Law Society (MLS) Central Region Chapter members have expressed concern with alleged delays and unavailability of judicial officers as well as the “unbecoming conduct” of some magistrates, among others.
The lawyers, largely based in Lilongwe, have also complained against cases of missing files and documents which they file with the courts.
This was revealed when chapter representative Robert Nthewa engaged the members through the official WhatsApp forum to register their concerns in the manner they interact with the courts.
According to the MLS chairman’s 2023/24 annual report, the Central Region Chapter members also raised the need for continuous development of court clerks in their standard of work.
The report also reveals that the chapter engaged the Judiciary assistant registrar to discuss the issues and challenges the legal practitioners and court users face.
Reads the report: “One of the issues discussed was the concern that one of the judges schedule mediation sessions for only old files.
“It was brought to the attention of the assistant registrar that members found it difficult to explain to their clients that 2021 or 2022 matters, for example, would not be assigned dates of mediation because the judge was only assigning dates for 2020 matters.”
The concerns were also shared by the Northern Region Chapter headed by William Chibwe Jnr while the Southern Region Chapter, chaired by McHarven Ngwata, did not complain about the same.
For the Northern Region Chapter, the concerns raised included missing files usually after lodging appeals in some magistrates’ courts, alleged preferential treatment and apparent biasness towards some law firms by judicial officers or court clerks, delayed judgements, failure by some judges to assign dates for mediation and continued refusal to grant ex-parte orders by the High Court.
High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal registrar Kondwani Banda yesterday said cases where a file would be misplaced is very rare.
“I would appreciate if the society through you would share the information requested as the question is too general and too open,” he said.
But in his report, MLS chairperson Patrick Mpaka says although there have been notable efforts to address some of the challenges, the society has noted that there are still glaring challenges in the administration of justice in the courts.
The concerns raised by the two chapters come six years after High Court of Malawi Judge Esmie Chombo, then judge president for Lilongwe Registry, alleged in 2018 that some lawyers were paying court staff to misplace or destroy court files as well as bribe court staff to prioritise work for their legal houses.
In a letter to the then MLS president at the time Khumbo Soko dated January 18 2018, she said she had been informed that some lawyers were paying court staff to “misplace or destroy a court file so as to frustrate case proceedings.”
But Soko refused to comment on the allegations, saying the letter was a matter between the Judiciary and the Malawi Law Society.
The judge also complained that court reporters and secretaries abandon legitimate court work to do typing and printing for some lawyers who offer them money for the services, a development which she described was “clearly unacceptable”.
