The story of the man that sold a faulty cell phone to an unsuspecting
army wife, and who against the inventions of good sense, refused to honor the
terms of the warranty is instructive. Instructive in its eventuality, that the
woman who stormed back to the barracks and brought her husband, who clad in the
fear-inspiring military fatigues, and with an enthusiastic gang of four other
soldiers, thought that the remedy of a ruthless situation was a barbarous
reprimand.
That the soldiers would beat up the unfortunate trader and ask the
woman to choose from his merchandise, any to replace the faulty cell phone,
while they took the rest to the barracks to distribute, is humorous of any
system that claims a vibrant legal system and an efficient adjudicatory and
enforcement mechanism.
To the average Nigerian familiar with stories of police and
military brutality, this particular story, while eliciting humor, would quickly
be forgotten. In fact, the story of a buyer of a low-priced commodity, who was
at the bad end of a sale gone awry and who resorts to the violence of false
detention is more or less a mild narrative, one unremarkable enough to not
solicit the much deserved attention at the gaping hole in the system, of a safe
mechanism for the small time transaction.
The small claims court is a court that has jurisdiction between
litigants on transactions of a small amount of money, like the case of a young
man who demanded a refund of the few dollars spent on a date, because the lady
he took out on a date was mostly distracted by her smart phone, and didn’t pay
enough attention, to the point that the young man suffered the pain of
realizing that his time and resources were lost to a futile evening.
This kind of court would take care of small debts and the issues
of eviction, and such disputes as are considered in themselves petty, but
aren’t in the dimension they assume in the end. These courts are already in
existence in countries like Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand,
and in such places like Hong Kong, Wales, Scotland, and England. The collection
of small debts happen to form a larger part of the cases that are taken to the
small claims court.
The magistrate court in Nigeria would have been the most
appropriate for such designation, but there is the almightiness and the
distance of even that kind of court from the small claim, for how would it sit
well with the magistrate court if it realizes that it has to see to the
adjudication of a case that aims to be restituted with the sum of three
thousand naira.
The call for this kind of court might seem in every kind of way
expecting too much from a system that gives too little, especially where order
and a guaranty of security is concerned. However the mess of having a distance
between plebs and justice in a nation, is the point at which there arises a
question of the rule of law. The system of courts with its intimidating
bureaucracy is the foundation of non-inclusion in the administration of
justice. One sees even educated people in the act of renouncing the
possibilities of seeing the four walls of a court.
The court is where the rich demands the little from the poor. It
is the place the rich and the powerful threaten every time they perceive that a
right has been infringed or when the satisfaction in the utility of a commodity
or service is way lower than expected. The pleb cannot afford the services of
the strutting, arrogant lawyer. Processing claims come maybe at the price of
what constitutes the subject of contention.
These and many more considerations are why self help is quite an
attractive choice of action. It is fast and efficient, and the only cost might
be the violence involved, which one only has to be angry enough to wreak. The
court of small claims should be able to match up to the known efficiency of
well-orchestrated self-help. It must not be demanding in the ways that many of
our institutions are.
It must have young magistrates who should understand and have a
mind that can navigate the quirky terrain of contractual agreements in Nigeria.
Above all, it must live up to what is expected of it. Such a court, if well
managed, would strengthen trust within contractual situations in Nigeria, and
generally help the facilitation of commerce, and overall, stimulate the
economy.
The courts must not be far from the common man, just as he should
know that learning how to make recourse to the courts rather than resort to
self help is a sensible step towards a civil society.
Source: www.lawyard.ng
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