By Garmah Lomoh|Judiciary contributor
Civil law court A judge J. Kennedy Peabody says access to Justice in Liberia is a challenge that have created by the silent and inaction of the actors of the Justice System.
Judge Peabody made the disclosure during the September term opening of the Civil law courts on Monday September 21, 2020.
Delivering his charge on behalf of Civil law ‘A’ and ‘B’ at the Temple of Justice, Judge Peabody said they are aware that there are many challenges in finding the solutions to access to Justice but the Bench and Bar have not been able to adequately address the issue and make implementation.
He delivered his charge under the theme “Access to Justice and Role of the Liberian National Bar Association in Enhancing Justice to all in Liberia”.
“A sustainable democracy begins with the rule of law and access to Justice and restore peace with the rule of law and access to Justice; people are unable to have their voice heard and exercise their rights”, judge Peabody noted.
He called on the Chief Justice and President of the LNBA and it’s members that they believed with the establishment of a regional appellate court in some of the counties, will alleviate the burden of long distances covered to have access to Justice something that will fast track cases and relieve the Supreme Court of a huge burden the Civil law court Judge added.
According to him, it is only in Liberia and the south region that has two steps to an appellate review. The Circuit Court and the Supreme Court and this has overburdened the Supreme Court over the years.
He therefore charged lawyers and judges to take the lead so that our people will have access to Justice and also called on them to response to Injustice adding that our appellate process is unique but it needs to be decentralized so that people will have access to Justice. One of those reasons people are losing faith in the Judiciary and Justice system as a whole.
The Civil law court “A” judge maintained that the situation with access to Justice doesn’t lies with the Judiciary or the interpretation of the law but rather the laws and how the system is structured.
The Judge further noted said it safe to say that the main barriers to access to Justice are the length of the procedure, the lack of political will to take the lead to a certain extent costs.
In response to his charge, Liberia’s Solicitor General Syrenius Cephus said from the last 50 years there has been no effective change of the laws something that is seriously embarrassing them.
He also said if the need for access to justice should be obtained, the system must be validated.
Cllr. Cephus said if even some of those laws are amended, it does not still solve some of those compelling issues and many at times people thing that conviction is Justice but not only that when people are acquitted is also Justice.
He called on lawyers to stop denegrating the court whenever they win or lose cases and also accused the LNBA of identifying problems but failed to implement actions and promised to work with what Judge said in his charge.
For his part, the Vice President of the LNBA Sylvester Reeves added that many none lawyers are all over the courts soliciting money from people in the name of providing legal services for clients something he said is damaging their profession.
He promised the judge that the recommendation made would be taken into consideration by the Executive Council of the LNBA.
Meanwhile, the Montserrado County Bar president Cllr. Sam Y. Cooper called on all court actors do their job professionally void of bribery and politic.
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