Civil Procedure and Practice
COMMENCING AN ACTION – Preliminary Considerations and Issues
Last Updated: November 29, 2022PRELIMINARY MATTERS QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED BEFORE FILING THE LAW SUIT 1 Relevant Laws What is the relevant law on the subject matter?Does the relevant law support the claim?Is there a Case law position or statutory provision that could adversely affect the claim? 2 Proper Parties Who are the proper parties to this action?Is the person to be sued really
At the Hearing: Tendering of Documents in Nigerian Courts
Last Updated: November 29, 2022Practice Thoughts Throughout the hearing it remains pertinent that the Claimant keeps asking and answering the question – am I building a house of cards? Many times, a case is ‘bad’ in the sense that its chances of success are near non-existent or pretty slim. At other times, a case is only poorly handled or prosecuted. For the second situation
Modes of Tendering Documents/Evidence during Trial
Last Updated: July 31, 2023Tendering of documents during the examination of witnesses can be done through the following ways Documents can be tendered from the Bar: Public documents can be tendered from the bar particularly when the procedure is not contested – ABDULLAHI v. F.R.N (2016) LPELR-40101(SC), (2016)10 NWLR (Pt.1521) P.475, SULEIMAN v. MOHAMMED & ORS (2021) LPELR-56088(CA). However, the legal effect of tendering
Beginning the Defence: General Considerations for Defense Counsel
Last Updated: November 30, 2022It is not disputed that in every case, the Court aims at doing justice to all the parties. And each party is before the Court with his legal team to help the Court achieve justice. Yet strangely, what is justice to the Claimant (or petitioner) would not be what the Defendant (or respondent) would regard as justice in the self-same
Grounds for Objecting to the Admission of a document/piece of evidence Pt. 1
Last Updated: June 29, 2023The objections to be addressed hereunder would be framed or couched as questions and briefly expounded upon. Links to further readings (available both on our site and on other sites) are also included. Reading materials are also mentioned. We begin our discuss in this part by an extenso reproduction of an online publication relevant to the discuss. We do not
At the Hearing 3: Probative Value of Specific Documents/Pieces of Evidence
Last Updated: July 28, 2023Admissibility of a Document Vs Weight/Probative Value attached to the Admitted Document – Two Different Considerations The admissibility of a document and its weight or probative value are two separate concepts in the law of evidence and each is governed by different principles. A plethora of authorities now emphasize this settled position of law by restating vividly that a distinction
Garnishee Proceedings In Nigeria Pt 1
Last Updated: June 20, 2023Is a Judgment Debtor a Necessary Party in Garnishee Proceedings? There are two streams of conflicting authorities from the Court of Appeal on the issue of whether a Judgment Debtor is a party in garnishee proceedings. In older authorities, the Court maintained that a judgment debtor has no role to play in garnishee proceedings and is not entitled to be
Interlocutory Injunctions in Nigeria – Cases and Practice Guide
Last Updated: June 20, 2023What is an Interlocutory Application? An interlocutory application is an application which does not decide the rights of the parties but are made for the purpose of: (a) keeping things in status quo till the rights of the parties can be decided; (b) obtaining some directions of the court as to how the cause of action is to be conducted;
Service of Court Processes in Nigeria 1
Last Updated: June 25, 2023Fundamental Nature of Service It is trite that the object of service, is to give notice to the Defendant so that he may be aware of and be able to defend if he may that which is sought against him. It is settled law that failure to serve Defendant is a fundamental vice as service of a Writ of Summons
GROUNDS FOR OBJECTING TO THE ADMISSION OF A DOCUMENT/PIECE OF EVIDENCE PT. 2
Last Updated: June 30, 2023Proper Time to Object to the Admissibility of a Document The position of law is that that the time for objecting to the admissibility of documents is when a party seeks to tender them in evidence and not on appeal (or by way of appeal) – IBORI V. AGBI & ORS (2004) 6 NWLR (pt. 868) 78 at 136; FATUNBI
Affidavit Evidence Pt 1
Last Updated: August 1, 2023Nature of Affidavit Evidence Under the rule of practice on filing and exchange of affidavit evidence, a party upon being served with a Counter-Affidavit containing a denial of the party’s allegation ought to file a further affidavit to counter the denial of his allegation. The effect of a failure to counter the averments in the counter-affidavit is that the facts