Right To Have Access To Courts

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
In this episode of KYR I'll briefly be summarizing your right to have access to the courts, in other words, your right to sue or defend yourself if sued. This right to a very large extent is the bedrock of every other right because if you can't go to court, then how else are you going to enforce all your other rights lawfully? The only other option would be to use force & resort to self-help in which case things are bound to get really ugly & messy. Who knows, you might even get severely dealt with by the person who wronged you. So it's highly advisable you go to court to air ur grievances & get justice.

Without further ado, the first thing you need to know is that your right to go to court is enshrined & guaranteed by the Constitution itself which is like the boss of bosses when it comes to the hierarchy of laws in Nigeria. The implication of this is basically that no one can stop or hinder you from going to court to settle your issues except in few exceptional cases mentioned by the Constitution itself (but don't worry about the exceptions, ur lawyer will guide you).

The next question you might ask is probably: "why should I go to court?" And the general answer to this is to settle disputes, issues & whatever grievances you might have. Quick Bible fact: even God Himself appointed leaders to judge cases & settle disputes among His people. So the courts today (together with the lawyers & every other person involved in the judicial system) are just continuing the divine mandate to settle disputes & maintain peace & order in the society.

Next you might also want to ask: "what kind of disputes can I take to court?" the answer - anything & everything! The law is vast & dynamic covering every aspect of human existence that you can possibly think of. Business, education, health, banking, employment & labour matters, sports, engineering, human rights, constitutional matters, election matters, crime, aviation, tax, landlord & tenant matters, land & other property matters, telecommunication, patents & copyrights, chieftaincy & traditional matters in general, inheritance, marriage, religion, debt recovery, companies etc you name it. But just make sure that your going to court for something reasonable. For instance, suing someone for a #20 debt is just laughable.

Although there are a few technical issues like: locus standi, proper parties, jurisdiction etc that must be satisfied, but worry not because you have lawyers all around who are trained to help you.

As long as you have a valid & reasonable claim, the courts will be more than happy to listen to you. The courts will never shut its doors but they are always open to do justice to any one who has been wronged using established principles of fair hearing. And even better is the fact that there are so many courts created to handle all the various kinds of issues you can possibly think of. These days the law even promotes peaceful settlement of disputes in order to maintain cordial relationships between disputing parties so you can be assured that things won't get too tense.

In conclusion, if you have been wronged in any way, do well to get a lawyer to assist you in getting redress. Don't just die in silence. Let me just use this medium to quickly say that I have seen & heard of so many stories of people suffering from grave injustice. Some of these people suffer in ignorance. But some actually know they can be helped by lawyers yet they insist on continuing in their suffering just because they have certain baseless & totally false negative perceptions about lawyers & the courts in general. If u belong to this latter category then I applaud your cluelessness. But while your busy enjoying your suffering, some other people are doing the smart thing by protecting themselves, their interests & enforcing their rights in court. For the ignorant ones, "biko receive sense!"

And finally, like some interesting car stickers would say, "Don't just get mad, get a lawyer!"

#KYR


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Right Of Self Defence In Nigeria: The Do's And The Don'ts

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Image
Today I've decided to talk about a very tricky topic namely: the right to self defence. Before I go further let me just drop this disclaimer that this post does not in anyway support or promote violence. And now to our discussion. First of all self-defence as the name implies, is any act done to protect one's self or property from an unlawful attack or violence. The Constitution passively mentions this right when it talked about the right to life and it makes a lot of sense because there are certain urgent situations where it is not feasible to get the timely help of any of the various security agents when faced with imminent danger. However, this right must be exercised with great caution. Let's now proceed to the elements of a valid self defence. Based on several judicial authorities, a valid act of self defence should involve a process of reasoning. This implies that whatever you're doing in self defence must be reasonable/rational. Therefore unreasonable ac...
Read more

Negligence & Human Rights

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Image
Negligence is a very important issue that cuts across so many aspects of our daily lives & seriously affects our rights. But interestingly, although this area of law is rampant yet it is often overlooked. Negligence in law can simply be defined as the omission to do something which a reasonable person (under similar circumstances) would do, or the doing of something which a reasonable person would not do. To establish negligence in law you must show that: 1) someone owed you a 'duty of care', 2) that person breached that duty of care, 3) and you suffered damages or losses as a result of that breach. 1) A duty of care is simply the duty we all owe each other to be careful so that our actions do not injure or harm another person. It does not matter if you know the person or the person is far away from you. Whenever your conduct can potentially injure another person or persons, then you owe that person or persons a duty of care, i.e. a duty to be careful. 2)...
Read more

The Right To Define Your Business Relationships

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Image
Today we are going to talk about the economic right of persons to define their business relationships. Our focus today is on all business/commercial transactions that involve exchange of value (whether goods or services) for a consideration which could be money or any other economic gain. Please note that in the course of this discussion, whenever I mention business/commerce I am also referring to employments, contracts, trades & investments of every kind. The law gives people liberty to determine the terms & conditions of their business relationships/agreements but such terms & conditions must be within the limits permitted by law. This economic right is very crucial because everyone is involved in one commercial activity or the other, & every person would definitely appreciate the opportunity to have a say with regards to the terms & conditions that regulate his/her business activities.  The best way to protect & enforce this right is to get help ...
Read more

Debt Recovery & Human Rights

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Image
Another prevalent issue in our society is that of debt recovery. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of challenges in this area which often  result in human rights issues. Therefore it's important to be well guided to avoid suffering or unknowingly inflicting human right violations because ignorance is no justification in the eyes of the law. In the context of our discussion today, a loan is simply money given by one person (called the creditor) to another person (called the debtor) for temporary use, to be repaid with or without interest. Usually, there are 2 kinds of creditors/lenders, namely: 1) commercial money lenders who are registered under the money lenders Act & carry on money lending activities as their official business. Examples are banks & some co-operative societies. 2) Private creditors who are just ordinary people or organisations that lend money based on personal or other reasons & not as a regular commercial activity. Both classes of creditors ar...
Read more

Freedom Of Religion In Nigeria

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Image
Today let's talk about religious rights. Religion is always a delicate and acrimonious issue in Nigeria which is even the more reason why we all need to know what the law says about religion so that we can learn to respect our different religious beliefs. So without much ado we will be discussing this fundamental right in 4 major points: 1) Every Nigerian has the freedom to BELONG, to CHANGE, to PRACTICE and to PROPAGATE or PREACH his/her religion. Under the law you are free to do any or all of the above both privately and publicly, and either alone or together with other persons. However, this freedom does not exonerate you if you use it unlawfully for instance where you become a nuisance to other people or become a trespasser or where you resort to violence. This is in line with the hallowed principle of law which stipulates that your rights end where another person's own begins. 2) No educational institution can compel its students to undergo any religious study...
Read more