Clementina Olomu
20 October 2003
Lagos — President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun, has imp-lored lawyers and judges to take Continued Legal Education seriously because," learning is so central to our profession and we will be acting out of share ignorance if we keep on claiming that we know too much, when in actual fact, we know little".
Speaking at a two-day workshop on, "Information Technology and Legal Practice the first in the history of NBA, organised by the Continuing Legal Education Committee, Olanipekun said Information Technology occupies a unique position in today's legal practice.
The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon, Justice Ibitola A. Sotuminu, who was a special guest at the workshop said the workshop was design to explore all available avenue open to legal practitioners in the area of information technology utility and also to educate them on the use of this indispensable tool.
She also gave an insight of her study tour of courts in the United States of America last year where, according to her, was exposed to some modern day technology in legal practise that is the E-filing.
Sotuminu remarked that this avails a practitioner the opportunity to file a case right from his chambers without coming to court, adding that another aspect is the use of computer for the allocation of cases and computerised case tracking so far that lawyer is connected to the court's Electronic E- Filing network. Sotuminu look forward to the day courts in Nigeria would be able to meet up with this modern trend.
On the workability of information technology in Nigerian system where corruption has eaten deep into the souls of Nigerians. Olanipekun told THISDAY that it ought to work if there's steady electricity, stabilised education and cohesion in the polity.
"The leaderships must lead in corporation with the states, there must be honesty n the nation with the fear of God, it is intertwined, it will definitely work. He further quoted Shakespeare, " the fault is not in our star but in ourselves," he said.
Speaking on the effectiveness of the E-Filing, Olanipekun said, "the process cannot be left to market forces because they cannot determine it's reach, this makes it difficult to tamper with documents. This process makes information easily accessible and it eradicates fraudulent practices among lawyers."
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