The Federal High Court of Nigeria has announced that the final date for the manual filing of new cases in the Lagos Judicial Division will be June 20, as the e-filing platform will become operational from June 23.
A statement by the chief registrar of the court, Sulaiman Hassan, said all cases instituted before the go-live date would, however, continue to be processed manually until judgment was delivered.
“Any lawyer who, either deliberately or inadvertently, understates the amount claimed, or incorrectly declares the number or type of documents filled, thereby causing an under-assessment of prescribed fees, shall be liable to pay the balance due together with a penalty in the sum of ten thousand naira (N10,000) for each filling,” said the statement.
To ensure a seamless transition, it urged all legal practitioners to obtain their legal mail accounts before the go-live date. It added that this was because possession of a legal mail address was a mandatory prerequisite for access to the e-filing platform.
“Lawyers can visit https://nigerianbar.ng and apply for their Legal Mail.
“Documents that require an oath must be submitted to the court via the e-affidavit platform (https://affidavit.courts.gov.ng), and the deponent must appear before the commissioner for oaths for the administration of the oath.
“It shall be necessary for each law chamber to upload all relevant documents relating to its registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on the e-filling platform while creating the chambers’ profile,” the statement explained.
It also stated that a two-day interactive session on the e-filing system would be convened to further shed light on how it can be done seamlessly.
