PAPUA NEW GUINEA
SINCE 1969
THE HEARTBEAT OF PNG
MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015
PORT MORESBY EDITION K1, LAE K1.50
1000 STUDENTS TURNED AWAY FROM REGISTRATION
PX CANCELS FLIGHTS AS RAINS HIT KIMBE
PETROMIN BOARD DRAWS CURTAIN ON TOLUKUMA
MPS’ GUARANTEE LETTERS NOT GOOD: PAGE 3
DELUGE AFFECTS ROADS TO AIRPORT: PAGE 9
HIGH COSTS FORCES DECISION: PAGE 19 NEW lawyers who joined the bar on Friday were challenged to be competent in order to cut back on the backlog of court cases piling up at the National and Supreme courts caused by bad lawyers who went before them.
Lawyers slack Chief Justice: ‘Bad lawyering’ leads to pile-up
BY JACOB POK THE National and the Supreme Courts have a backlog of more than 21,000 cases dating back 32 years because of “bad lawyering”, according to Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia. The backlog continues to increase every year because
of the inability of the courts and lawyers in assisting the court in conducting cases with due despatch and efficiency, Sir Salamo said. He said the National Courts now had more than 20,000 pending cases dating back to 1983 while the Supreme Court had more than 1200 pending
cases dating back to 1994. “The hearing of cases are unduly and unnecessarily delayed for months and years,” he said during the admission of new lawyers on Friday. “When cases are heard, they are not completed within reasonable time in that they are left part-heard and unattended
to or decisions are reserve for months and years on end and list goes on.” “It is the duty of the courts, assisted by a competent legal profession that holds key to the disposition of these cases in a timely and qualitative manner.” CONTINUED PAGE 2