The Chief Justice Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny – Dollo has revealed that the good performance of Courts in disposing of cases last year was due to an increased number of judicial officers.
Speaking during the opening of the 24th Annual Judges’ Conference on Monday at Mestil Hotel Kampala, Justice Dollo noted that the substantial rise in case disposal in 2022 was mainly attributed to the increase in the number of Judicial Officers at the Magistracy and High Court levels.
He added that also the intensity in the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as plea bargaining, mediation and Small Claims Procedure, and daily hearings at the Criminal Division among others played a greater role in 2022 performance.
According to Justice Dollo, the improved coverage of the Judiciary at the Magistracy level reduced the case backlog to 11,333 cases in the year 2022 compared to 14,741 in the year 2021, giving a difference of 3,408 cases.
“Looking at the performance of Courts over the past years, the number of cases completed each year has been growing, from 126,265 cases disposed of in 2020 to 158,423 cases disposed of in 2021 and 250,021 cases disposed of in 2022. A total of 91,598 cases were disposed of in the year 2022 more than in 2021,” he said.
Justice Dollo revealed that the High Court completed 10,656 more cases than it completed in 2021, the Chief Magistrates Courts completed 50,818 more cases than they completed in 2021 and the Magistrate Grade One Courts completed 30,107 more cases than in 2021. Overall, the performance for 2022 surpassed that of 2021 by 91,598 cases thereby reducing case backlog by 4,915 cases, i.e. a reduction in backlog from 43,921 cases in 2021 to 44,339 cases in 2022.
“With the added numbers, during the last calendar year 2022, All the Magistrates Grade 1s deployed at the independent Court stations and those under Chief Magistrate headed Stations performed exceptionally well.”
He added that Magistrates Grade I completed the highest number of Cases (140,438 cases) followed by Chief Magistrates (29,296 cases). The Magistrates Grade II completed the lowest number of cases (7,435).
“The performance is strongly correlated with the staffing levels at the respective Individual Ranks, with Magistrates Grade I having the highest staffing of 292 Judicial Officers, followed by Chief Magistrates with 77 Judicial Officers and Magistrates Grade II with the lowest staffing of 22 Judicial Officers as at 31st December 2022,” he said.
Under special court innovations, for the calendar year, 2022, the Small Claims Court resolved 21,819 Commercial disputes from which a total of Shs 12,387,209,913 was unlocked and made available for reinvestment back into the economy.
In addition to the Small Claims procedure, the Plea-Bargaining process for criminal cases also played a great role in delivering quick and acceptable justice to the parties and it undoubtedly helped in reducing case backlog and decongestion of prisons.
During the year 2022, Plea-bargaining sessions were conducted at Mbarara, Mukono, Masindi, Jinja, Mbale and Mubende High Court Circuits. The Criminal Division also conducted plea bargain sessions at Rukungiri, Kabale, Entebbe, Mbarara and Luzira Magistrate courts.
In all these sessions, out of 3,162 cases cause-listed for Plea-Bargaining sessions, 2,830 cases were completed translating into a 90 per cent completion rate. According to Justice Dollo, out of the 2,830 completed cases, 2,254 cases were completed at the High Court level while 576 cases were completed by Magistrates Courts.
“The High Court spent Shs676,2000,000 to dispose of the 2,254 Cases, but if the cases went for a full trial, the Government would have spent Shs 2,254,000,000 to complete them; hence there was a saving of Shs 1,577,800,000. At the Magistrates Court Level, the Government spent Shs172,800,000 instead of Shs216,000,000 which would have been spent for full trials of the same cases, hence saving Shs43,200,000,” Justice Dollo said.
He also revealed that Plea Bargaining has also been the best tool in promoting community reconciliation in line with Article 126(2) of the Constitution of Uganda.
“Reconciliation as a mode of dispute resolution has stood the test of time as the most acceptable indigenous African mode of dispute settlement across different ethnicities in Africa. Plea Bargain also guarantees victim involvement and strives to balance the rights of the victim against those of the accused and the society at large.”
He added, “This exceptional performance gives the Judiciary Family and the Ugandans we serve the hope that in the near future, the ghost of case backlog will be banished and the people of Uganda will be able to receive meaningful, cost-effective and timely justice within a walkable distance.”
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