Nerrie Eliakim

​Lack of consultation affects court cases

A legislation that was recently passed is the National Information and Communication Technology (NICTA) Act.

Committal Courts in Waigani have seen a huge increase in the number of cases brought before the courts from offences like posting offensive, insulting and defamatory remarks on Facebook to sending offensive text messages.

Some of these cases get withdrawn while others get struck out.

​Ageing workforce a challenge

Papua New Guinea has a total of 92 magistrates, which includes the Chief Magistrate and her two deputies.

Eliakim says most magistrates serving on the bench have had more than 10 years of service.

“For me that is frightening, it basically tells me that the court has a huge number of magistrates who are ageing,” says Eliakim.

Chief Magistrate Eliakim says they have tried to correct the ageing gap in its workforce by recruiting magistrates since she took office in 2014.

​92 magistrates in POM for meet

Chief Magistrate Nerrie Eliakim highlighted this when opening a three-day meet for magistrates across the country yesterday morning.

A total of 92 magistrates are in Port Moresby for a workshop that will focus on designing a transformation program for the magisterial services and district court that will assist magistrates manage and dispose cases efficiently.

A transformation program will be designed during the meet that will help address case backlogs and other issues magistrates face on the bench, with regards to standards and targets.