The Resident Judge of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court in Grand Bassa County, Joe Barkon, has cautioned heads of the Judiciary to combine their fighting spirit for the increment of the Judiciary’s budget.
The judge said it is his hope that when that is done, all the circuit and magisterial courts will begin feeling the impact of the increment, rather than it stopping at the Supreme Court level.
“We want to applaud the effort, tenacity, and resilience of the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices for raising their voices so loudly in demanding increment in the budgetary appropriation made in the national budget for the Judiciary and it is our expectation that when the increment is made in the budget of the Judiciary, the spending impact must filter down to the circuit and magisterial courts, and not just the upper level of the Judiciary,” Judge Barkon reiterated.
However, it was gathered that US$4 million was given to the Judiciary for elections’ special operations during the October 2023 election but said amount was alleged to have only remained at the level of the Supreme Court and not a single court below received a cent.
It is rumored by some judges and magistrates that most often, when goodwill donations are done, it only remained at the Supreme Court level without reaching the lower courts.
“We also wish to commend the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) for its statement issued to the public buttressing the effort of the Supreme Court in calling on the Legislature and the Executive Branches of Government to increase the budget of the Judiciary,” Judge Barkon added.
“We appreciate the effort of the Chief Justice and her colleagues for such a bold step and decision to have called on the other two branches of the government to see reason to increase the budget of the Judiciary because the Judiciary is seriously challenged with many critical and compelling needs in administering justice throughout Liberia,” he continued.
According to Judge Barkon, research has shown that the Judiciary currently has 22 circuit courts throughout the country as well as 75 specialized courts, and 160 magisterial courts and that these courts contain staff and deserve adequate logistical support for dispensing justice freely and impartially.
For instance, some of those specific challenges faced by the Judiciary include but not limited to the lack of basic office equipment and office supplies to some of the courts in the country.
Among the misperceptions are that some judges have assigned vehicles to enhance their job performance since their appointment for some year now while magistrates do not also have assigned vehicles, and they routinely commute on motorbikes on a daily basis to get to their assigned courts.
While it is observed that the vehicles assigned to judges have completely depreciated, thereby imposing repair cost burden on them personally in some cases when the Judiciary is constrained to underwrite the cost of repairs and when those vehicles need urgent replacement.
The lack of funding to construct judicial complexes in the other circuits like the 2nd Judicial of Grand Bassa County to include the construction of magisterial courts and other parts of the country, for example, the Edina City Magisterial Court is conducting trial under a hut.
According to them they have written authorities of the Judiciary since four years ago while the lack of funding to develop the capacity of judicial staff and lawyers and the exposure of judges and magistrates to local and international judges’ trainings to enable them cope with some new methods and skills in handling judicial matters in this 21st century.
The concerns were highlighted when members of the Bar and guests graced the dedication of a Judicial Complex that was constructed in the 14th Judicial Circuit by the Chief Justice and her team in Rivercess County for the transaction of legal business.
“We applaud the Judiciary for such a unique project, especially the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Francis Korkpor, under whose administration the project was launched,” the court staff expressed.
The judge reported, “During the Term under review, Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh assigned and mandated me to have presided over the May Term of Court, A.D. 2024, and her mandate was fully executed in keeping with law.”
He stated, “Returns made to the Chief Justice indicate therein that during the Term under review, there were 99 cases of both criminal and civil on the court’s docket, out of which four criminal cases four were disposed of; two cases were disposed of from the court’s docket with one tried on the merit through a Bench trial in which two of the three defendants in persons of Simeon Reeves and Lorwah Konah were sentenced to prison for 15 for the conviction on the charge of Armed robbery and Co-defendant Loemani Flomo was acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence.”
“The other two criminal cases which were not docketed, but transferred during the term, were disposed of by motions for failure to proceed with prosecution and nolle prosequi. Two civil cases were disposed of as well, thereby leaving the balance of 95 cases brought forward to the August Term, 2024,” he explained.
“Moreover, one case of summary proceedings filed against magistrates were disposed of and that the court also disposed of three motions and one law issue in civil cases,” the resident Judge indicated.
He went on, “The Probate Division of the circuit court disposed of several matters involving Petitions for Court’s decree of letters of administration, Petitions for Court’s Decree of the sale and conveyance of land, Petitions for Court’s Decree of Guardianship, the probation of lease agreements, and other legal instruments.”
Judge Barkon revealed that the Probate Division also generated the total amount of US$875 and LD4, 875 from the probation of Title deeds, Lease Agreements, and other legal instruments and also collected was US$375 as court’s fines and fees informing them that records from the seven Magisterial Courts and the Traffic Court within the 2nd Judicial Circuit.”
It was revealed that during their sitting in the February Term of court, 2024, there were a total of 265 Criminal cases and 17 civil cases recorded on their dockets for the Term of court mentioned above, and they disposed of 144 criminal cases and 11 civil cases with the balance of pending cases 121 criminal cases and 6 civil cases for trial.
The total amount of fees collected from these Courts amounted to US$195 and LRD 8,000.
In response to the Judge’s charge, the outgoing County Attorney of Grand Bassa County Patto Jarba said, they from the Ministry of Justice are in full gear to work with Judge Barkon in prosecuting cases and filing motions where necessary.
“Even though I’m an outgoing County Attorney but the Ministry of Justice has been challenged of having city solicitors in most of the magisterial courts in Grand Bassa County and at the end, the clerk of court in some cases has to play dual roles which is totally out of the law,” Cllr. Jarba concluded.
