Judiciary turns to contractual judges to deal with case backlogs

The judiciary has turned to hiring contractual judges and registrars on a temporary basis to deal with case backlogs in courts. Information from the judiciary shows that 20 judges and 10 registrars have been hired and given six-month contracts to work especially in primary courts. According to statistics from the 2020/21 judicial report, the trials that were postponed in different courts increased by 28 percent from 22,784 to 29,259, and one of the reasons for this increase, is the Covid-19 preventive measures which led to limited court activity. During the same time, the average time a case spends before it is tried increased from 8 to 10 months. “Definitely we have backlogs. We have a high inflow of cases, and as you know, we have insufficient court staff. So, the contractual judges and registrars are coming in to assist in tackling the backlogs,” said Harrison Mutabazi, the Spokesperson of the Judiciary during an interview with The New Times. According to the law determining the statute of judges and judicial personnel in Rwanda, contractual judges are those who work in courts under a fixed term employment contract in order to support those courts during the period specified in the contract. “However, contractual judges do not work either in the Supreme Court or in the Court of Appeal,” the law reads. They should be lawyers with at least a Bachelors of Law, and should be examined by the High Council of the Judiciary which is headed by the Chief Justice, before they are deemed worthy for the job. “They go through interviews, written and oral, and then the High Council of the Judiciary will do the selection of those that have attained the threshold of the marks that are required. After this, they are confirmed and sworn in, and trained,” Mutabazi said. He added that this is not the first time that the country is using contractual judges, noting that the solution was used in the past - about 8 years ago – and the results were good. “We have had them in the past and they did a good job in extraditing the hearing and deciding cases,” he said. He added that: “Other methods we are now employing are alternative dispute resolution methods like mediation; we are also employing it to help in the reduction of backlogs and such stuff.” To deal with backlogs, the judiciary also uses other measures, key of which is court annexed mediation, a justice option that roots for peaceful resolution of conflicts. The Court Mediation Advisory Committee is currently headed by Chief Justice Emeritus, Prof. Sam Rugege. The judiciary published a list of 165 accredited mediators, most of whom are senior lawyers in the country and other professionals like engineers, to assist in the process.

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Judiciary turns to contractual judges to deal with case backlogs