The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Jan Steyn has raised concern over unnecessary postponement of cases in the courts of law.

He said this when marking the closure of the second session of the Lesotho Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

Justice Steyn said postponements lead to the delay in dealing with cases to their finality, saying that the report that there are 1 507 criminal cases pending before the high court is evident to such delay.

He said, "It is high time that postponements be sought by way of affidavits in which valid reasons should be advanced in order for the court to decide whether or not to grand postponement".

He also raised concern over some of the judges of the high court, whom he said reserve judgments for a long time, saying the practice is prejudicial to the litigants.

Justice Steyn further criticised some of the lawyers for incompetence, while others, he said, seems to be unwilling to assist their clients accordingly. He said they make a bad name for the legal practice.

Justice Steyn, however, said he has already interacted with the President of the Law Society of Lesotho regarding the drafting of code of conduct for legal practitioners, which is expected to be complete by the end of next month.

'The implementation of this code of conduct would be a step forward in addressing the problem of incompetence and inefficiency of lawyers,' he stated.

The code of conduct for legal practitioners is expected to be in force next year.

Source: LENA 24/10/2007