Fiji lawyers sidelined as justice deteriorates

Updated May 19, 2009 16:20:23

It's just over a month since Fiji's president scrapped the constitution and sacked the country's magistrates and judges, but with the media censored, no new judges appointed, and less than half the magistrates working it appears while there may be some order there is no law. In the first of this two part look at the state of Fiji's justice system after the abrogation of the constitution, Anita Barraud spoke to a few very under-employed lawyers in Fiji to discuss how the country is coping without a working justice system.

Presenter: Anita Barraud
Speaker: Dorsami Naidu, President of Fiji Law Society; Tupou Draunidalo, Lawyer, activist, former politician and stepdaughter of former Fiji Prime Minister; Mr Nagin, Lawyer for Sherani and Company in Suva

NAGIN: I think the only court that seems to be operating at the moment is the family court. In the magistrate's court, we in Suva, especially we have only one magistrate, the chief magistrate, who more or less is dealing with cases and adjourning them rather than doing any hearings, because for one man it's too much. And the high court we are not having any hearings at all. I don't think that anything will be heard even in June.

BARRAUD: Suva lawyer, Mr Nagin, is having an enforced holiday. Only nine of the usual 22 magistrates are currently working across this nation of just under a million. On the West Coast, it's no better.

Tupou Draunidalo, is based in Nadi.

DRAUNIDALO: Hi Anita.

BARRAUD; Oh, hello Tupou. Now I am just wondering, I rung through your office, you have got a person at the front answering the phone, you have probably got a secretary, but there's no work?

DRAUNIDALO: No, there is no work. I have not had any new instructions since before the degradation and I have heard that staff have been laid off, work days have been cut and there is more to come.

BARRAUD: What impact is this having on your general citizen awaiting to get their day in court?

DRAUNIDALO: Well, I suppose the best would be when the magistrate's court, the lowest court reopened after eight days of closure and we had persons accused of various offences telling the magistrate they had been remanded there for eight days in very appalling conditions, because there was no magistrate to bail them. And they complained of being inhumanely treated by the authorities and no-one to check and worse, there was no media to tell the world or anyone about what was going on. So and the consistency in their stories one after the other.

BARRAUD: And how many stories are we talking about?

DRAUNIDALO: Appalling. That morning, the first morning of the reopening, I would say about 10 at least, that was in one district court.

BARRAUD: On one day?

DRAUNIDALO: Yeah, the allegations that they were beaten up by the authority to confess to certain allegations made against them and I remember in particular there was one accused person who kept asking the magistrate if he could show him his injuries and he'd have to take off the trousers that he was wearing to show the magistrate and the magistrate said there is no need for that and I accept what you say and he ordered that these people get medical reports, medical treatment by 4pm on that day, before they reappear. I don't know what happened when they reappeared. But that is what occurred on that day.

BARRAUD: There is little way of knowing how many cases are pending or people on remand awaiting bail hearings or sentencing and it's not just criminal cases. Mr Nagin, an attorney from the law firm, Sherani and Company, works in mainly civil and commercial law. He says other cases not being heard include probate cases, where there are disputes over wills, medical negligence and compensation cases, human rights issues, discrimination and a variety of complex, commercial litigation. From big companies to smaller businesses, nobody is getting their day in court.

NAGIN: Yeah, one of them was a case where the Shell Company which is the owner of a service station is trying to evict a person who is not paying rent and has been really abusing the conditions of the lease. Now the man is still in possession, we can't get him out.