Case Management

Abstract

Case management is the process through which a case passes through commencement (filling) to completion. It is thus a system which ensuring that once cases are commenced in the courts and become defended (or even if not defended) they progress to trial without undue delays. The same process has been referred to as case tracking, case control, court management or court control in other jurisdictions. Case management is a new concept, which was introduced to expedite delivery of justice by removing bottlenecks in the judicial system that had literally made it impossible for cases to be resolved expeditiously. For a very long time, judicial staff and legal practitioners were content to use the civil procedure rules as handmaidens of justice. Many of them had crammed these rules heart and so were court precedents like Makula International known by letter and word. One was considered a good lawyer if they knew the rules by heart and a bad lawyer, if the reverse was true. In spite of the clear CPR, judicial officers and legal practitioners for a long time could not understand why cases especially civil cases were difficult to complete and why delay had become a common problem. No one, just like the Europeans, who complain about the weather and do nothing about it, was able to come up with solution. Cases continued to delay in court, so practitioners pulled tricks of on their friends to win cases by hook or crook. Adjournments came to be the order of the day. Judges, who should have been in the driving seat, too, sat back and watched as legal practitioners, took charge of the judicial process. It was like someone watching a roman arena, as slaves fought beasts.