Judge accuses lawyers of frustrating peaceful resolution of crises
Judge of a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Justice Toyin Ipaye, has accused some Nigerian lawyers of deliberately frustrating the success of Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) in the state.
The judge, who spoke at the continuous legal education programme of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja, said experience has shown that most of the resistance to the use of ADR mechanisms come from lawyers and not necessarily their clients.
The judge, who was represented by another judge, Justice Latifat Oluyemi, noted that lawyers are resistant to the change because they have been well trained in litigation, the adversarial method of resolving disputes and are thus unfamiliar with other models.
Justice Ipaye said the appropriate thing for judges and magistrates to do is to seek to know the reason for the non submission to mediation or other ADR method by lawyers and claimants/litigants and address the concerns.
Also in his paper, “The Rudiments of Brief Writing”, Mr. Olatunde Adejuyigbe, counselled lawyers against filing a brief of argument in solidarity with appellant.
“The role of the respondent in an appeal is to defend the decision of the court from which the appeal emanates and canvass arguments that the decision of the lower court be affirmed,” Adejuyigbe said.