ABSTRACT
The
aim of this project work is to design an implementation of a computerized case
scheduling system of court of law. The
judicial arm of government is the third organ of government besides the
legislature and the executive, the major functions of this arm includes setting
of cases, pushing the guilty people and also interpreting the constitution of
the land as well as administration of justice.
The current process of case scheduling is being operated manually and
due to this procedure numerous problem are been encountered. A design was taken
to computerized the manual process in order to check this problem. The problems
were identified after series of interviews and examination of documents after
which analysis was made and a computerized procedure recommended. This project
will also suggest how to successfully implement the computerized procedure and
to overcome the obstacle that would hinder the successful implementation of the
system. The new system was designed using Microsoft visual basic 6.0
programming language. This language was chosen because of its easy syntax and
features for developing windows based applications.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1. INTRODUCTION
The
judicial arm of government is the third organ of government besides the
legislature and the executive. The major
functions of this arm includes setting of case, finding the quality people and also interpreting the
constitution of the land as well as administration of justice other functions include interpreting
laws made by the legislative arm of government, declaration of acts of the
legislative as null, void, unconstitutional and of no effect.
Moreover,
the judiciary is the alt hope of the ordinary man. They do this by safeguarding the rights and
liberties of the citizens. The aggrieved
person can go to court to seek redress.
It is the job of the court to see to that justice prevails. Also during elections courts may determine
who actually won the election and rigged it as part of its settlement between
individuals and the state.
The
judiciary operations through courts which ascertain facts disputes and
adjudicate between disputing parties.
The Nigerian judicial system is composed of a hierarchy of courts
ranging from the customary court (Alkaki Court or Sharia Court) Magistrate
Court and High Court to the Supreme Court.
In
the democratic set up a minister with a port folio heads the ministry of
justice. The minister is also the
attorney general of the country.
By
virtue of section 6(1) of the Nigeria constitution 1991, the following courts
were established in the federal republic of Nigeria.
The
Supreme Court
The
court of Appeal
The
sharia court
The
customary court
The
courts established by the constitution are the
only superior courts of record in Nigeria. The supreme is the highest court and all
decision from the court is binding to all other courts. In Nigeria, the State court structure of the
level of the court of Appeal the court of Appeal entertains appeal from the
decisions of the high courts. The sharia
court of Appeal and customer court of appeal.
Appeals from the decision by the court of appeal go the Supreme Court.
In
terms of administration purpose, the state courts are the most important court
in each state. This assertion is
strengthened because the constitution has established a high court of each
state directly; each state has our option to establish a Sharia Court of Appeal
or a customary court of appeal.
However,
for effective performance of the court in its judicial function, there is need
for a computer base system to be introduced into court system.
The
data base system will ensure better control and regular effective documentation
of case file as well as scheduling of cases.
This work therefore gives an analysis of the design and implementation
of a computerized court system in case scheduling taking a case study of Imo
State high court Owerri.
1.2. BRIEF HISTORY OF IMO STATE HIGH COURT
Before
the introduction of British colonial administration in Igbo land, the Igbo’s
have a well entrenched traditional system of adjudication. The colonial administration found the system
convenient and native courts, which became the forerunners of today’s court. The native court continued to exist even after
leading to storing agitations for their eventual abolition.
However,
in line with the coming effects of the constitution of the federal republic of
Nigeria and the provision made therein for the establishment of the state high court,
Imo state high court Owerri came into function following the creation of the
state, located along Orlu Road Owerri metropolis Imo state, ahs courts ranging
from 1 to 9 with its chief judge respectively.
The Imo state High Court Owerri ahs unlimited jurisdiction over the
state expected on all matters regarding all federal government owned
parastatals such as federal government owned institution, organization or
school etc. There are several judicial
decisions created for administration purposes.
1.3. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
The
organization structure of Imo State High Court show the hierarchy of personnel,
various function departments, individual positions as well as their
relationship together for order logical arrangement.
DUTIES
OF PERSONNEL
Personnel
duties are connected whereas some are reached such that without proper
understanding and discharging of roles, work might be affected.
Hence
there is need to explain most the personnel duties.
The chief judge: He is the chief executive of the State High
Court. He has unlimited jurisdiction, he
is as well the overseer of the whole body and adjudicate cases.
The administrative judge: the administrative judge of different
division assigns cases to various court for hearing. He also communicated with the court clerk
about cases that ate entered into the court’s dairy.
The chief registrar: Also known as the sheriff carried all
executions and sales under his directive.
He also the head of administration.
He complies and transfer issues, petitions against parties.
The director of personnel:
He also the head of administration. He
compiles and transfer issues, petitions against staff arrange the process of
promotion of staffs under the strict supervision of the registrar.
Assistant chief registrar:
They carry out effective services filling and processing of court proceeding
aimed at reporting to the judge for jurisdiction. They also assign oaths.
The chief accountant: He is discharge of financial matters federal
allocations as well as liaises with the senior accountant and the accountant
and also ensures that staffs receive their salaries.
The senior clerical officer: the office of the clerk is responsible for
information control. He attends to the
public papers case lits, and enters cases into the courts dairy as well as
schedule cases for hearing.
1.4. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
In
response to the knowledge or need to computerize the system or method of case
scheduling of a court of law. In order
to curb to problems of inefficiency associated with the manual system or method
of case scheduling and analyzing court proceeding which includes the following
inaccurate recording: this is a high
tendency of encountering error when records are kept manually.
Time
wasting: there is a high tendency of
time wasting. In recording processing
and analyzing files or records manual or system is so laborious and time
consuming compared to computerized system.
INADEQUATE PLANNING AND DESIGN
The
sole aim and objective of this work is to design and implement a computer base
system for case scheduling in a court of law. It also aims at ensuring flow
information as well as communication and documentation amongst all.
1. Ensuring
faster and more effective system a computerized system.
2. Source
information to students or researches who might venture into related field of
study.
3. Ensure
effective storage and retrieval system in the court of law using the computer
system.
4. Improve
the level of security of information as well as document and files.
5. To
design a system that will at the same time by giving an immediate reply of any
request made on re-confirmation of case scheduling in a court.
6. To provide facilities that will ensure easy updating and maintenance of the system.
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
use of a computerized case scheduling was design to enable the Nigerian
judicial arm of government though the court, enhance their duties of live up to
their responsibilities of setting cases ascertaining facts of disputes and
adjudicating between disputing of a computer base case scheduling system. The above stated topic of the discussion will
as well individuals or researcher to have good understanding of the structure
of the court. The court system as well as its processes with regards to how
cases are handled and scheduling.
1.6. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
To
ensure the progress, validity and originality of the project the scope was
reduced to lowest term considering that case scheduling and its computerization
are essential task been carried out in a law court. It is a side topic that involves many
corporation and protocol. The Imo state
High court owerri, was chosen so s to based ambiguity and to ensure that success
is achieved at the shortest possible time. ln this project will certainly
outline the method of a computerized system of case scheduling which the law
court could use and as such ensure timeliness of information as well as
security of information. The limitation to
this research work include the following:
2.
Lack of resourceful materials that would further
investigation and harnessing.
3.
limited time to carry out the research
work, as the research was combined with other academic activities
4.
Financial instability, which constituted
more to the limitation as relates movement form one place to another for
material and further aids towards the topic of discussion.
1.7. DEFINITION OF TERMS
Computer: This is an electronic device that is capable
of solving problems by acting data performing prescribed operations on the data
accepted and supplies the result of the operation.
Computerization”
This is a technique whereby all parts of an organization run manually are
taking over by the use of the computer system.
Judge:
This is the officers in control of court of law who decides how criminal
offenders should be punished.
Crime:
This includes all illegal activities in general deal with by legal decision.
Adjudicate:
This means to officially decided who is right in an argument between two groups
or organization in a court of law.
Adjourn:
To temporarily stop the case or postpone a case in the law court.
Culprit: the persons who is guilty of a crime or
responsible for demand, or a problem
Defendant: the person who a case issued against
Plaintiff: this is the person summoning another on a
case in a law corrupt.
Prosecute: to officially change somebody with a crime in
a court of law.