Court dockets are heavily and unjustifiably congested as a result of the indiscriminate filing and delayed processing of cases in the courts of justice. Hundreds and thousands of cases remain pending for further action or resolution. The average judicial disposal of cases annually is only 85.83%. The situation is said to become worse and the backlog will continue to grow rather than diminish unless judges are able to dispose of more cases through a systematic and sustained judicial reform program. The slow and delayed processing of earlier cases affects the progress of other following cases. To the business sector, such delays in processing cases would increase their cost due to high litigation expenses. It is, therefore, imperative that alternative measures of unclogging court dockets should be explored to help minimize litigation expenses.
