Court Case management system necessary

A judge-controlled case management system is necessary to improve court performances in the Pacific region, says PNG’s Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia.

He said currently Pacific island judiciaries are accustomed to the use of a Registry-based Case Management System however its application has produced court inefficiency.

The Registry-based Case Management System or RCMS has been responsible for many undesired outcomes such as the accumulation of a backlog of cases that have remained unreached for many years.

As a result of dissatisfaction over the RCMS, Sir Salamo Injia today said a modern case system has evolved.

Speaking at the first session of the 2016 Pacific Judicial Conference which PNG is hosting, Sir Salamo said the Judicial Case Management System (JCMS)is one which sees case management centered around the judge who will take control of the case from the point when it is registered to when it is disposed.

“JCSM is judge-centered, judge-based, judge-driven and judge-controlled,” he said in Port Moresby.

The JCSM was introduced in the PNG courts in late 2008 which replaced the RCMS.

A physical inventory work of the case loads took two-and-a-half years to complete after 2008.

The inventory work in the PNG National Court showed workload of39 percent of cases were pending. Of these, 32 percent were active cases while 7 percent were dormant cases. They were immediately disposed through Summary determination in 2011.

In 2012, a new system code named Case Docketing System (CDS) was introduced which saw cases assigned to judges. This exercise was also carried regarding Supreme Court cases.

The collation of case data and tracking of case flow has significantly improved as a result.

Sir Salamo said the benefits of the Case Docketing System will be discussed later on during the course of the Pacific Judicial Conference.

 

(PNG’s Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia. Picture by Loop Photographer Kennedy Bani) 

 

Author: 
Sally Pokiton