Registry staff embarks on Case Clustering Exercise
In a bid to fight case backlog, the Commercial Court has commenced on a two-week exercise to group cases based on their categories using a tool which was developed by Hon. Justice Stephen Mubiru, the Court's head.
According to the Judge, the tool will ensure that cases are clustered and decided within a specified period of time in quarterly sessions while creating a pattern in which they are heard.
Additionally, the status of the cases before each judicial officer will be determined during the exercise, clustered and managed accordingly. This will also serve as a form of data cleaning strategy to deal with cases that might have been completed but not updated in the system.
Hon. Justice Mubiru noted that after the exercise, each Judicial Officer will handle at least 75 cases per quarter. "This will enable us to give real-time access to justice and improve our case monitoring and evaluation to inform decision making and planning," he said.
He further explained that two Judicial Officers will be scheduled to handle such sessions on a rotational basis focusing on a particular case category in a quarter to ensure balanced case management.
HW Juliet Harty Hatanga, the Division's Deputy Registrar said it was necessary to carry out case audits to assess the caseload per judicial officer as well as desegregate the different cases based on their categories.
She further added that with such a strategy, each judicial officer will be able to approach case management more intentionally while identifying the most prevalent cases in order to prioritize them equitably across the different clusters.
The exercise will enable the court to estimate each case's monetary value versus the resources needed for its completion, the Deputy Registrar said.
The sessions are expected to begin in January 2023, after stock-taking, causelisting and stakeholder engagement. After the clustering exercise, the Division is also set to develop an annual planner to improve its efficiency in terms of resource allocation, accountability and ultimately service delivery.
Posted 7th, September 2022
