TheNigeriaLawyer Editorial

*As Industrial Court Ranks High

INTRODUCTION

The 21st century is hallmarked by a thousand and one innovative ideas, which have not only impacted humanity but influenced manner and practice to which activities are carried out. What`s more, with the emergence of the internet in the 1980s and its evolution into its 3.0 version which features artificial intelligence assistance, machine learning programmable language, semantic web and a host of other new creations, there has been an increase in the need for society to keep up with the trend.

In Nigeria, major institutions have since welcomed the innovations of technology, as well as adapt its prior systems to fit the trends created by these innovations. Amongst these institutions includes the superior courts of record, which like most agencies and institutions has inculcated modern technology into its practices.

One of the major innovations which these courts have welcomed is the setting up of a personal website which is meant to communicate recent happenings in the particular court owning the websites, as well as trending updates, decisions and judgement of the justices of the Court. This feat was and is well appreciated by lawyers, researchers and law students alike who are more than happy to have a virtual space where they could have contents as it relates the superior courts of record, without crossing a metaphorical wilderness.

However, and much unfortunately, it seems the excitement came early, as after the initial ‘gra-gra’, some of these Courts have failed to make use of these innovation, and have only an inadequate and sparsely nourished website page to show. In the injury time, consistency was not key.

Thus, premised on this line thought, this article has the summary objective of giving a clear and objective analysis of the superior courts of record, establishing whether they are not they have been consistent with updates as well as served this purpose they were established for. Furthermore, in the process of doing this, the websites of the various Courts will be ranked based on which provides recent contents and happenings.

The institutions examined under this article include;

The Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The Court of Appeal.
The Federal High Court.
The National Industrial Court.
The National Judicial Council.
EXAMINING THE WEBSITES OF THE SUPERIOR COURTS OF RECORD IN NIGERIA.

THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COURT
The National Industrial court is said to currently be the court with the best website in Nigeria. The official website of this court is well designed in that it has an elegant surface design on its home page that attracts the eye. It also, contains a menu bar where different menu headings exist to redirect the user to any sections they so desire to go. In addition to this, the website contains trending news highlights, and contains a notification section about the availability of trending or breaking news or happenings as regards the court, making it pretty simple for users to navigate the website as quickly and easily as possible in order to get the information they are searching for.

Another exciting and standing out feature about this particular website is the inclusion of the most useful publications of rules and procedures as well as instrument, laws and filing forms useful under the jurisdiction of the court which are accessible to eager users and researchers. It also makes available a section for recent decisions of the court, constantly updating the list. Interestingly, it also possesses link to the websites of other courts and different legal parastatals as well as law report.

However, there exist a small hiccup in this website, as most times accessing of different menu cannot be possible due to lack of upgraded page. An instance was where, this writer while trying to access the section for the recent judgements was surprised with an error page on different occasion. Nevertheless, the website remains updated with recent events in and around the court, a major feat compared to the websites of the other Superior courts of record, and happens to be mobile friendly; as at the time of filing this report, the website was accessed via the writer`s mobile phone.

The NIC has two websites , however, it is only one that is functional [https://nicnadr.gov.ng/]

The website of the National Industrial Court can be accessed via https://nicnadr.gov.ng/ and this https://nicn.gov.ng/

NATIONAL JUDICIAL COUNCIL

The National Judicia Council (NJC) are currently making use of the same website, which is ranked as the 2nd best website amongst the Nigerian Courts. The website is not only well designed in terms of fonts and colors, but also contains menu bar that makes for the navigation of the website easy. Amongst this menu are current information about the NJC ranging from recent guidelines and procedural rules, to code of conducts and trending news, events and press releases that are dated May, 2022. This goes to show the extent to which much attention is placed on the website to ensure that it doesn`t become obsolete and dead. It also features pictorial and video gallery for users to cruise true given them a chance at an optimized experience while using the website. Containing frequently asked questions (FAQ), makes the website a place for which answers bordering on the NJC can be answered without any fuss whatsoever.

Like that of the National Industrial Court, this website contains a section for breaking news and trend as well as link to various websites of other Courts and legal institutions. Interestingly, the website contains a link to the recent tweets of the NJC.

All these features establish the website to be one of the best, and amongst all these websites, it should be ranked as the number one mobile websites, as the time of this report, this website could be accessed flawlessly with a mobile device.

The website of the NJC can be accessed through https://njc.gov.ng.

FEDERAL HIGH COURT
Compared to that of the National Industrial Court and the Supreme Court/NJC, the website of the FHC ranks 3rd. Like the two previous websites, that of the FHC is aesthetically designed, and contains a menus section that makes for an easy navigation of the website by users. However, the updates on the news, publications and press releases are last dated April 2022.

Also, the sections for E-services contain no updates. The weekly cause list and E-forms are empty and seems to be there for fancy. Fortunately, the E-law report session under the E-service works fine given access to decided cases under the jurisdiction of the FHC. It also, contains links to other relevant website and a medium through which complaint can be communicated to the FHC.

This website is also mobile friendly and can be accessed via https://fhc-ng.com. and this; https://www.fhc.gov.ng/

THE COURT OF APPEAL
It is with great sadness and displeasure to say that the website of the second highest court in Nigeria is totally and absolutely nothing to write home about. It seems the setting up of the website was just an action of trying to belong. The website of the Court Appeal remains the poorest amongst that of the superior court of records. The menu bar is sparse in the sense that it doesn`t contain adequate sections that will ease the navigation of the website by users.

Also, the website does not contain any news publications or trending publications, that will update its visitors. Its judgement section contains no cases. In fact, it is safe to say that website of the Court of Appeal is a failed trial; a wasted virtual space, and this is so unfortunate.

Despite this, the website is can be easily accessed by a mobile device. It can be accessed via https://www.courtofappeal.gov.ng.

SUPREME COURT
The supreme court`s website is the last ranked. This is because at the time of filing this report, the website was literally inaccessible. It was not only difficult to load, when it did load, it was slow to navigate. This writer is calling the attention of the apex court to this development. The apex court`s website should be the best of the best, easy to navigate and well updated, so unfortunate that this is not the case. It is slow and barely updated, a bad standard.

Hopefully, this article shall draw the attention of the court to this fact. The website can be accessed via https://supremecourt.gov.ng.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The various superior courts of record listed above could do a lot to ensure that their websites are of the best quality.

Some of these things include; first, there should be constant updates of the programming language to enable users access the websites features without much stress. Secondly, the various sections of contents on the page should be updated to reflect the most current happenings. These two suggestions will require experts in the field, which no doubts these courts can afford.

Furthermore, the FHC website should be consistent with what over menu sections that are designed on it; for instance, the course list and E-forms.

Also, the website of the Court of Appeal should re-design to include fundamental features, updates should be made to ensure the featuring of trending publication surrounding the Court of Appeal on the website. The cases and judgments should be adequately reported on the website for user`s access.

At this point, the courts must turn back to the innovations brought about by the lock down situation during the corona virus pandemic. The introduction of virtual hearing, E-filing and serving system. This where innovations that can make the justice system efficient and effective, but has been shun by some of these courts. We recommend that the other courts should follow the footstep of the National Industrial Court which has been a pace setter and provided a platform for digital hearing via Virtual hearings meaning that these courts have to step up on improving their websites.

And also these courts can make use of platforms like zoom, google meet and discord to hold remote court hearings, making distance not be a barrier to judicial proceedings. This will aid the success of justice in the society thanks to a fast settlement of dispute through different means.

Finally, acknowledging the fact that most of these courts do not update their websites with recent judgements in a bid to cut down on persons who trade these updates for money, however, We recommend that the courts place focus on updating other parts of the websites consistently. This include the cause list sections, the Court forms that aid proceedings. Having these forms and the ability to have them filed online, will change the entire judicial process and ensure a quick adjudication process.

TheNigeriaLawyer Editorial