Hon. Hassan B. Jallow made this disclosure on Sunday during the inaugural event of the 2023 Legal Year.
“The courts, both lower and superior courts, register thousands of cases before them for adjudication, with the number of cases rising each year. A large chunk of these are civil cases. Thus, the enforcement of out-of-court settlement mechanisms would reduce workload and at the same time fast-track efficient and effective justice delivery by the courts.”
Justice Jallow reminded of rising cases of civil litigation, hence the need for such, adding that the courts should step in only to settle civil disputes which the parties are unable to resolve between themselves.
He thus implored the citizenry to embrace out-of-court settlement first to resolve matters between them, which is unfortunately not the case in most matters before the courts.
Accordingly, the Rules Committee, presided over by the Chief Justice and comprisesAttorney General and the President of The Gambia Bar Association, has adopted an amendment to the rules of the High Court, which now makes such efforts at out-of-court settlement mandatory and a condition precedent to the hearing of any civil matter.
“A party instituting civil proceedings is required to provide certification of such efforts and their outcome to the court.” he said.
The amendment of these, according to the Chief Justice, will be published and will come into force shortly. “I appeal to all counsel and would be litigants to heed these new rules and to comply with them. It will save them, indeed save all of us, much time and resources; time and resources best devoted to necessary, unavoidable litigation.” he said.
