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AGM MINUTES - 2 - 12 OCTOBER 2012 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GUEST SPEAKER INTRODUCTION OF GUEST SPEAKER: JUSTICE K.K. MTHIYANE The President introduced the guest speaker, Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Justice Mthiyane by providing a brief background on the academic achievements of the Deputy President. ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL, JUSTICE MTHIYANE The following is a summary of the address: The Deputy President (DP) addressed the meeting on the issue of Judicial case management and the role of the legal practitioners in the flow and management of cases stating that his reason for doing so was because there is a great concern currently in the country regarding the extent to which the Courts are able to turn over judgments and other related expectations that litigants expect. The goal of the judicial system, the DP said, is to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of a case or of every action; to achieve such goal in the face of the Country’s challenges arising from inadequate resources and the high cost of litigation, the Judges and the Courts themselves must manage the litigation process, which objective cannot be achieved without the input and participation from the legal practitioners, including the obligation on attorneys to enquire after delays in judgements in the interest of accounting to the litigating public. It was his view that the responsibility for finalising cases in Court with reasonable speed and without undue delay does not rest solely with the Judges but extends to other role players viz. the court staff, the legal practitioners and all the other stakeholders such as Legal Aid South Africa, the DPP. It therefore requires a concerted effort from all to be supportive of steps being taken to implement judicial case management models. One of the resolutions taken at the Judges Access to Justice Conference in July 2011 was that Judicial case management would be implemented to ensure that justice to which South Africans are given access is of a high quality and delivered with reasonable speed. In respect of criminal cases in particular, section 35(3)(d) of the Constitution is relevant. It provides that accused persons have the right “to have their trial begin and conclude without unreasonable delay”. If cases are not managed this fundamental objective of disposing of them with reasonable speed and without undue delay would not be achieved. An inevitable consequence will be the unnecessary infringement of the constitutional rights of people concerned, especially those who are held in custody and those that approach the Courts to seek redress for what they perceive to be injustices inflicted upon them.
AGM MINUTES - 3 - 12 OCTOBER 2012 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the Access to Justice Conference in July 2011 a monitoring committee led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo and the current Chief Justice Mogoeng was established. A subcommittee called the Judicial Case Law Management Committee was appointed with its objective being the task of stemming the tide of delays in the disposal of cases in the High Court The Judicial Case Law Management Committee is the key driver of case management in the High Courts, the DP being the current chair. The Committee has set up a pilot project which would commence at three pilot sites, KwaZulu-Natal High Court, the North and South Gauteng High Court and the Western Cape High Court. The intention being to introduce in these Courts a working model which will see a more efficient and effective streamlining of the flow of cases so as to reduce delays to a minimum. At the moment the pre-hearing phase of a particular case is firmly located in the clerk or registrar’s office or at the legal practitioner’s office or that of a prosecuting authority, as the case may be. It is these officers or entities that dictate the pace of litigation or the conduct of the criminal case. The Rules of Court as presently structured do not effectively allow a judicial officer to take control of a case before him or her at the earliest possible opportunity. For this reason the Judicial Case Law Management Committee has come up with practice directives as an option; these will of course need to be embraced by the Judges, the legal practitioners and all the other relevant stakeholders. The Committee does not see them as being in conflict with the rules but rather as short-terms aids aimed at achieving a quicker, effective and a more efficient way of dealing with cases in keeping with the objectives of the Constitution. The DP stated that it is envisioned that at some time in the future the rules will be amended to provide for case management. Under the present rules in civil cases, the prehearing phase commences with the pleadings in which issues between the parties are identified and defined. This is then followed by a sometimes tedious exchange of processes before the matter is finally placed before a judicial officer for trial. Ideally a Judge should be involved at the earliest possible opportunity so as to enable him or her to play some role in the identification of the issues in dispute and cut out unnecessary issues which may cause delays in the disposal of cases. The Committee has proposed inter alia the following: ‣ A case should be allocated to a Judge upon the signing of an action or application. ‣ A case schedule should be implemented. ‣ Continuous judicial control over a case through judicial officers’ support staff should be maintained.
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