Cllr. Pearl Brown-Bull, a senior Supreme Court of Liberia lawyer
Pearl Brown Bull, a Senior Supreme Court Lawyer has called on legal practitioners in Liberia to challenge the qualification of Magistrates to determine their competence to dispense justice without fear or favor.
“If you go before a magistrate with your case and notice that magistrate is not commissioned, you should take him up before the Supreme Court on summary proceedings because he or she is not fit to preside over your case,” Cllr. Bull said.
She further noted that just like lawyers, Magistrates must be commissioned to gain the requisite qualification to carry out their functions.
Cllr. Bull urged the Ministry of Justice to qualify these Magistrates that will put them in favorable positions to dispense justice.
At the same time, she decried judges being rotated due to limited road connectivity, housing facilities, vehicles and other logistics.
“I believe they should allow most of them stay in their circuits so they learn from the lawyers and the lawyers can know them as well as the clerk.”
In a related development, the veteran Legal Practitioner pledged to take on the case of Judges’ salaries being cut by the government.
“I am willing to take on this case on behalf of these Judges, because I will be saying to the Supreme Court that the Constitution of Liberia of which we only three women signed prohibits the government from cutting judges’ salaries because these people are making sacrifices.”
In the same way, she wants the Minister of Justice to be held in contempt until the government can restitute the full amount cut from these Judges’ salaries.
“My late husband Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Garrison Bull would hold officials responsible to pay Judges in Contempt whenever they failed to pay them. She added, “The people playing with government around here, you don’t play with the Judiciary, so they are wrong and I call upon the Executive branch of Government to do the needful by paying them.”
Recently, Judge Blamo Dixon and other Judges of subordinate courts called on Finance Minister Samuel Tweah restitute the monies deducted from Judges and other judicial workers’ salaries through the harmonization scheme. The Finance Minister has been given four months to comply or he may face the wrath of the Judiciary.
