Moorosi Tsiane
CHIEF Justice Sakoane Sakoane has urged clients to sue incompetent lawyers who neglect completing their cases.
The visibly angry Justice Sakoane made the remarks yesterday while responding to Law Office lawyer, Advocate (Adv) Molefi Masoabi’s request for the court’s indulgence to re-allocate a 2015 divorce case between Lesaoana Thahe and Matebello Thahe.
The matter was among 28 cases listed on a dismissal roll before Justice Sakoane yesterday.
Adv Masoabi told the court that the lawyer who had been handling the case had since left the Law Office, and they were requesting time to re-allocate the matter.
“My Lord, the office is yet to re-allocate the matter as the previous lawyer has since left. May we be given three weeks for re-allocation,” submitted Adv Masoabi.
However, Justice Sakoane would not entertain the request. He said the case had first appeared before him in May 2019, and he could not understand why it had still not been assigned a new lawyer six years later.
He said there was no excuse for the Law Office to have allowed the matter to remain dormant for such a long period, calling it a clear sign of negligence.
“Counsel, in May 2019 this matter was before me, and you are only coming here now for re-allocation? This is a court of justice, and there is no valid excuse for allowing the matter to lie dormant for six years. The client will have to sue the office for negligence.
“The other party is being prejudiced. It is not a good reason that a lawyer was sleeping on the job,” fumed Justice Sakoane.
In response, Adv Masoabi asked the court to dismiss the case, and Justice Sakoane dismissed it for want of prosecution.
Justice Sakoane lamented that Basotho often blame the courts for delays in the completion of cases, but said it was a mockery of justice when lawyers sit on files for years without action.
Of the 28 civil cases enrolled for dismissal, 23 were dismissed for want of prosecution, with no appearances made in most of them. Three cases were postponed, while two were found to have been mistakenly enrolled on the dismissal roll as they had already been completed.
The High Court, through the Office of the Registrar, had earlier issued a notice warning all parties or legal representatives to appear before court during the dismissal roll to show cause why their cases should not be dismissed for want of prosecution.
“In the event that a case is not liable for dismissal for want of prosecution, the parties must come prepared for the court’s imposition of conditions for future conduct of the proceedings for the expeditious disposal of the cases,” the notice read.
The dismissal roll is part of the High Court’s ongoing initiatives to expedite case resolution, reduce case backlog, ensure effective administration of justice, and restore public confidence in the justice system.
