The consistent collaborated reports of corruption in courts across the country has claimed the bad side of Chief Justice, His Honor Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay.
For that reason, Gbeisay has voiced his anger for the “overly used of court as a commercial place to extort money from
lawyers and party-litigants, who come to seek justice.”
Chief Justice Gbeisay outpoured his anger at the opening of the Civil Law Court in
Monrovia.
He named bailiffs, sheriffs, recorders and clerks in the scheme involving the extortion of money for anyone seeking justice.
Justice Gbeisay observed that such “bad practices were scaring people away from the court system, as well as discrediting the good image of our courts.”
“The court system has been commercialized. Everyone is running away from courts, seeking self-justice, because everything in the court is about money, money!!”
The money, Gbeisay said are being illegally collected from clients by bailiffs, clerks, recorders and sheriffs, who are charging lawyers and party litigants to enforce precepts is unnecessary,” Justice Gbeisay angrily stated.
His Honor, Gbeisay said, all staffs are employed, and if for any reason, they are not satisfied with their salaries, they should leave their jobs and do something else, instead of demanding money for the “wrong reason.”
To remedies the situation, Gbeisay is asking members of the public to record and report
court officers, who charge exorbitantly outside the law to carry out court precepts.
Chief Justice Gbeisay, announced a four-man committee comprising the Assisting Court Administrator, the Judiciary Security Director and the Audit to receive complaints against all judiciary employees, who are engaged in misconducts.
He stated that if an employee heavily charged any member of the public just to deliver precepts to a short distance, said court staff should be recorded or photo taken as evidence.
The employee will be dismissed as a punitive action to deter others from doing the same. He warned that the court should not be used as a market ground, for which citizens are running away from the court and this is unfair.
He meanwhile, Justice Gbeisay has released a mandate that lawyers should appear in court
wearing dark suits like blue, black and gray coat suits.
He pointed out that it is an established rule of the court that lawyers appearing in court must be in these colors of suits to dignify the profession.
Chief Justice Gbeisay has meanwhile, admonished lawyers to desist from falsifying
documents and manufacturing evidence in other to win cases, adding: “Any lawyer caught in falsifying documents will be outrightly disbarred from the legal profession.”