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Directions Note:
Issued at Windhoek on this 8th day of May 2007. JUDGE-PRESIDENT Superior Courts of Namibia Website>> TABLE OF CONTENTS Section A:
Divorce Proceedings Section B:
Matters falling within the Magistrates’ Court Jurisdiction Section C:
Labour Court Section D:
Numbering of Court Documents in all cases Section E:
High Court Roll Section G: Withdrawal of Counsel EXAMPLE 3.10.2007:
Section E - Divorce Cases - Floating Roll
added, with effect from 30.11.2007. Legal practitioners who receive instructions
in divorce matters should file a certified copy of the marriage certificate
at the Office of the Registrar simultaneously with the notice of set down
in divorce matters. This requirement notwithstanding, practitioners must
still present the original marriage certificate or certified copy thereof
on the date of trial. (a) Where an alleged adulterous Third Party is resident in Namibia and his/her address is known, service of the summons should be effected on that person. (b) Where such a Third Party is resident outside Namibia and his/her address is known, service of the process will not be required. In such a case a registered letter containing a notice of the proceedings will suffice. (c) In all other instances, whether inside or outside Namibia, where it was not possible to determine the whereabouts of such Third Party, the Court may dispense with such notice or service, if it is shown that reasonable steps taken to ascertain the whereabouts of the Third Party were unsuccessful. Such evidence can be placed before the Court through the plaintiff when giving evidence or, if that is not possible, e.g. that enquiries were made by the legal practitioner, an affidavit by the legal practitioner setting out the steps taken will be acceptable. (d) Where the above is not possible, Judges
are encouraged not to take an unduly formalistic approach, but must be
satisfied that reasonable steps were taken to comply with the Rule. Service of a Restitution Order must be
effected not less than 14 days before the first restitution date. (i) If the return date of a Restitution Order (Rule Nisi) has to be extended it has to be extended to a fixed date falling on a Second Motion Court session day. (ii) If the Restitution Order has been properly served, but the Rule Nisi cannot be confirmed on the return day, application must be made to extend the Rule to another (Second) Motion Court day. (iii) If no service could be effected application
must be made for new dates, either on the return date of the Rule Nisi
or any other (second) Motion Court day. (a) There has been an increase in the jurisdiction of Magistrates’ Courts published in Government Gazette No 1696 dated 6 October 1997 effective from 3 November 1997. (b) Practitioners are informed that in
the case of actions instituted in the High Court after 16 January 1998
and which fall within the jurisdiction of Magistrates’ Courts, costs
will only be allowed on the Magistrate’s Court scale. In regard to those cases instituted in
the High Court before the increase of the magistrates’ court jurisdiction
practitioners should consider the transfer of such cases to magistrates’
courts or run the risk of only being awarded costs on the magistrates’
court scale, from after the date of such increase. This concerns cases
which fall well within that jurisdiction and where there is no special
circumstance requiring that the matter be heard in the High Court, such
as difficult questions of fact or law. After consultation with the Labour Courts' Rules Board, the following practice direction is made: (a) The President of the Labour Court and the Chairperson of a District Labour Court should be addressed as "Sir" or "Madam", as the case may be. (b) The President of the Labour Court and the Chairperson of a District Labour Court should not wear judicial attire. (c) Legal practitioners appearing before
the Labour Court or a District Labour Court should not wear legal attire. Opposed as well as unopposed Labour Court
cases will be heard on Fridays at 10h00 and should be set down as such.
No Labour Court case should be set down on the First Motion Court Roll. When a summons, application, provisional sentence summons or labour court application is filed for issuing purposes, a court file will be opened, the particulars of the litigants entered in the relevant registers and a permanent case number will be allocated and placed in the right upper hand corner of the file. The case number will appear on the file as well as all the relevant documents as follows: (i) I 1/2007 - in the case of action proceedings (a) In all the abovementioned matters permanent numbers will be allocated at the time the proceeding is commenced. (b) The under-mentioned symbols will apply in the different matters, namely: (i) CA No 1/2007 - Criminal and Civil Appeals (a) Up to 312 civil cases per term will be enrolled at 24 cases per week on a floating roll; (b) These 312 civil cases will be enrolled at a predetermined Registrar's meeting for each term; (c) The procedure of enrolment is the following: (i) Practitioners intending to enroll civil cases on the
floating civil roll shall complete a pro forma form provided to legal
practitioners, requesting a specific number of days for the hearing of
each case; (d) No date for the hearing of any opposed
action or application (except an urgent application) shall be granted
by the Registrar to any legal practitioner acting for and on behalf of
a litigant unless the legal practitioner applying for a hearing date annexes
to the Notice of Application for a trial date a document setting out the
legal and factual issues to be determined in the case. An example is set
out in Annexure "A" hereto. (The summary should not be more
than 100 words.) (a) Not more than five opposed divorce cases per week will be enrolled on the Divorce Floating Roll. (b) A Judge will be assigned each week to hear and try opposed divorce cases from Monday to Friday, and that Judge must conduct a pre-trial hearing at 14h15 on Monday in respect of Divorce Floating Roll cases. (c) The procedure of enrolment is as follows
– (d) It is only after the requirements in paragraph (c) of this subsection have been complied with in respect of a case that the Registrar will formally enrol that case on the Floating Divorce Roll. (e) For the avoidance of doubt, all unopposed divorce matters shall continue to be placed on the motion court roll and be dealt with by the unopposed divorce motion court. (f) The unopposed divorce motion court Judge shall also hear and try opposed divorce cases under this subsection. (g) The amendments contained herein shall
come into operation on 30 November 2007. (a) A civil case will only be placed on the fixed roll if: (i) it is anticipated that such a case will run for more
than 4 days, and/or (b) Only one case will be set down on the fixed roll per week to be heard from Monday to Friday, unless the Judge-President directs otherwise. (c) The same procedure as in subsection
1(c)(i) - (v) of this section is applicable in respect of the fixed roll
and a separate Judge will be assigned to hear a civil case on the fixed
roll. (a) A partly-heard civil case, which was not finalised within the time allocated for it, will be placed on the next term roll on a date and time arranged with the Registrar before the postponement. (b) Where a civil case which had been set
down on the floating roll could not be heard because the floating roll
cases (which take precedence over set down cases) did not finish and it
was not possible for the Judge-President to assign another Judge to hear
same, such a case will be set down by the Registrar for hearing during
the following term. The legal representatives do not need to attend the
Registrar's meeting and to comply with subsection 1(c)(i) - (vi) of this
section. Opposed Motions will be heard on Mondays. (i) Legal Practitioners should comply at all times with the time periods with regard to the filing of Heads of Argument. (ii) Heads of Argument of the Applicant(s) in all Opposed Motion Proceedings should be filed not later than 15 clear court days before the date that the Application is set down for hearing and those of the Respondent(s) not later than 10 clear court days before the hearing date. Both the Applicant(s) and the Respondent(s) must file a list of authorities referred to in their respective heads of argument together with such heads. Under no circumstances should the list not be filed with the heads of argument. (iii) Supplementary heads of argument are discouraged, but if it is necessary, such heads of argument by the Applicant and/or Respondent should be brief and concise and must be filed not later than 5 clear court days before the hearing date. The Court will not accept additional heads of argument in the case on the day of the hearing of the matter. (iv) If a practitioner fails to file Heads
of Argument in time, a proper Application to condone such failure should
in good time be filed with the Judge or Judges, as the case may be. Ordinarily,
if the heads of argument of both parties, or anyone of them, are not filed
within the time set out herein, the Application will not be heard. If
condonation is granted, the Application shall be postponed either to a
date previously arranged with the Registrar or to another date when opposed
applications are heard. When no heads of argument have been filed in the
time provided and no application for condonation has been made, the presiding
Judge may in his/her discretion strike the Application from the Roll with
or without an appropriate costs order, or hear the Application and adjudicate
upon it without all the heads of argument and make such costs order as
is deemed appropriate in the circumstances. If a period of 6 months have lapsed after
service of summons, no order will be made in Motion Court unless the summons
has been re-served. The First and Second Motion Courts will
be held on separate dates. The First Motion Court will be held on Fridays
at 10h00 and the Second Motion Court on Mondays at 10h00. Set down dates
and times for Motion Court proceedings appear hereunder. All Motion court matters, except divorce
proceedings, will be placed on the First Motion Court Roll not later than
12h00 on the preceding Wednesday in terms of the relevant High Court Rule. (i) All unopposed divorce matters will be dealt with on Mondays in the Second Motion Court and will be set down not later than 12hOO on the previous Thursday. (ii) The only exception in respect of enrolment is that if an opposed divorce case, which was set down on the floating roll (from Tuesday to Wednesday), becomes settled during the previous week just before the unopposed Divorce Court sits, the case may be set down for hearing in the Divorce Court, for which purpose Notices of Set Down and Withdrawal of Defence, etc. will be accepted. (iii) Return days of Rcr orders, extended
return dates and orders for new dates will also be heard in the Divorce
Court in addition to unopposed divorce matters where evidence is presented
to obtain a Rcr order. Subject to Section E(2), a duty Judge will
commence duty at 12hOO every Wednesday and will be on duty until 12hOO
the next Wednesday. The duty judge will conduct both motion courts and
hear urgent and interlocutory applications. (a) Except where the Rules of Court otherwise provide, there shall be not less than 5 clear court days between the date of service or delivery of notice of interlocutory applications, and the date of set down. (b) All opposed interlocutory applications, opposed summary judgment applications, opposed Rule 43 and opposed Provisional Sentence applications will be heard on Tuesdays at 10h00 by the duty Judge. (c) When such applications (other than urgent applications) become opposed, the duty Judge presiding in motion court should let those matters stand down until the end of the motion court roll. The legal practitioners of the applicant/plaintiff and respondent/defendant will then have to inform the Judge whether they want to proceed with or without heads of argument. (i) If the parties indicate that they wish to proceed without heads of argument the duty Judge should postpone the matter to 10hOO the next Tuesday for hearing (while that Judge is still on duty). (ii) If the legal practitioners indicate that they wish to file heads of argument, the following procedure is applicable: The plaintiff/applicant files its heads of argument not
later than 16h00 the following Thursday; (iii) If an interlocutory application becomes opposed the duty Judge may require that heads of argument be filed and in that event subsection 5(b) of this section shall apply. (iv) The duty Judge may in his or her absolute
discretion hear any application on any other day than those set out above. (a) All urgent applications are heard by the duty Judge at 09hOO on a Court date, unless counsel has certified in the certificate of urgency that the urgency of the matter is such that it has to be heard at any time and on any day. (b) If the duty Judge dismisses the urgent application for lack of urgency or refuses to condone non-compliance with the Rules of Court, but the applicant intends to continue with the application on the merits, the application has to be set down in the normal course as an opposed motion in compliance with subsection 5(a) of this section and the Rules of Court, and heard on a Monday during the following term. (c)(i) If the duty Judge does condone non-compliance with the Rules of Court and issues a Rule Nisi, the return date must be a first motion court date; (ii) If on the return date the Rule Nisi will only be confirmed, or discharged by agreement, the presiding duty Judge can confirm or discharge the Rule Nisi in Motion Court. (iii) If the Rule Nisi is opposed, unless in circumstances other than where the order is anticipated in terms of Rule 6(8), the return date must be extended to a Monday during the next term in compliance with the Rules of Court and the parties must comply with subsection 5(b) of this section in respect of the filing of heads of argument. (d) Presently, there is no provision for
the so-called semi-urgent applications and, therefore, there is no semi-urgent
roll. (a) Interpleaders in terms of Rule 58 will be set down to be heard by a Judge on Fridays at 09h30 and will be heard in open Court. Interpleaders will be set down for hearing by the Registrar after consultation with the Judge-President. (b) Where the Court has ordered that the
issue between the claimants be stated by way of a stated case, or otherwise
be tried in terms of Rule 58(6) (c), the matter is regarded as an opposed
motion and the appropriate CPD in respect of set down and filing of heads
of argument apply. Hearing of Appeals (a) Some criminal appeals and all civil appeals will be heard on Mondays at 10h00. (b) Criminal appeals being prosecuted personally by prisoners and those in which amicus curiae counsel have been appointed will be heard on Fridays at 10h00 at the High Court Building located at the Windhoek Central Prison. (c) All appeals will be set down for hearing
on a continuous basis during the term by the Registrar, after consultation
with the Judge-President. Labour Court cases will be heard on Fridays
as set out in Section C. A term roll showing all civil and criminal
cases to be heard during each week of the following term will be furnished
to the Law Society and the Prosecutor-General as soon as there has been
full compliance with the CPD regarding set down of cases. This roll will
also appear on the High Court Website: http:// www.superiorcourts.org.na
and will be available at the front desk of the Registrar’s Office. 1. Criminal trials will be heard on dates and times arranged with the Registrar and confirmed at criminal pre-trial hearings. 2. The establishment of a fixed and continuous criminal roll for pre-trial hearing in criminal cases are the following: (a) The criminal roll of the Court for criminal cases pending in the High Court for trial shall be divided into- (i) A fixed criminal roll; and (b) Notwithstanding the set down of a criminal case for trial on any later date, it shall be set down for hearing on the criminal pre-trial roll in the High Court as soon as possible after the commencement of proceedings therein in the High Court. (c) The object of a pre-trial hearing shall be to curtail the duration of the trial by timeosly enquiring into and giving directions concerning the following matters: (i) the delivery of the indictment and any further particulars
thereto to the accused; (d) If an accused is represented by a legal practitioner- (i) the prosecution may deliver to the accused and the Registrar not later than 10 days before a pre-trial hearing a pre-trial memorandum containing in sequential order each factual allegation that it wishes the accused to consider for purposes of making an admission at the trial and the presiding Judge may refer to such memorandum during a pre-trial hearing when he or she enquires whether the accused intends to make any admissions at the trial; (ii) the accused may deliver to the prosecution and the Registrar not later than 10 days before a pre-trial hearing a pre-trial memorandum containing in sequential order factual allegations he or she makes in his or her defence that he or she wishes the prosecution to consider for purposes of indicating whether it intends to take issue therewith at the trial and the accused may refer to such memorandum when he or she considers the extent of corroboration required to establish such an allegation at the trial. (e) If, in the opinion of the Court, the parties have not dealt with all the matters referred to in paragraph (c) in a satisfactory manner at the first or any subsequent pre-trial hearing, it shall, if possible, postpone the pre-trial hearing to the earliest subsequent pre-trial date before the trial date: Provided that it shall be deemed that the matters have not been so dealt with, if the following have not at least been recorded- (i) that the indictment and, if requested, any further
particulars thereto have been delivered to the accused; (aa) the plea he or she intends to tender at the trial
and, if guilty, whether the basis on which the accused intends to tender
it, will be acceptable to the prosecution; and the particulars thereof; (vi) the number of witnesses the accused intends to call
and, if he or she is in custody, whether he or she requires assistance
in procuring the presence of those witnesses at the trial and, if so,
the names and physical addresses of those witness; (f) If the Prosecutor-General has not already done so,
he or she shall as soon as possible, but in any event, not later than
30 court days after the first pre¬trial hearing, set the case down
for trial on the criminal roll: Provided that the days between 16 and
December and 14 January, both inclusive, shall not be counted in the time
allowed within which to do so. (h) Where the accused indicates in the course of a pre-trial hearing that he or she intends to plead guilty to one or more or all of the charges preferred against him or her, the prosecution may indicate to the Court whether or not the plea of guilty on the basis as tendered by the accused will be accepted by it, and, if so, the Court may direct that the case be disposed of either on the pre-trial hearing roll or on the continuous criminal roll. (i) If, at any time before the trial date, the accused wishes to plead guilty on any or all of the charges, he or she shall forthwith inform the Prosecutor-General of his or her intention to do so and of the basis on which the plea will be tendered, in which event either the accused or the Prosecutor-General may, upon not less than 10 court days notice to the other, set the case down for hearing on the first available date for criminal pre-trial hearings. (j) The Court may direct that a matter be placed on the
continuous criminal roll for hearing if- (k) If it appears to the Prosecutor-General that due to-
the hearing of a criminal case should be
expedited, he or she may, with the leave of the Judge-President, set the
case down on the continuous criminal roll. 1. A counsel who represents a client in a civil case or a criminal case in the High Court and who wishes to withdraw from the case because he or she has not been provided with sufficient funds to represent the client during the scheduled period for the hearing of the case, shall withdraw: (a) not later than two months before the date on which the case has been set down for hearing; or (b) if the period between the date on which a date of set down has been obtained or on which the legal practitioner is for the first time informed thereof and the date of set down is less than two months, not later than one week after he or she has obtained the date of set down or has been informed of the date of set down. 2. A counsel who has not withdrawn within the period prescribed in subsection 1: (a) shall be deemed to have agreed to appear on behalf of the client during the period for which the case has been set down for hearing; and (b) shall not, without the leave of the Court on good cause shown, withdraw from the case on the ground that he or she has not been provided with sufficient funds to represent the client during that period, irrespective of the payment of his or her fees and costs prior to such appearance. 3. A counsel who withdraws for the reason mentioned in subsection 1 shall forthwith: (a) inform the client of such withdrawal; (b) inform the client of the date on which the matter has been set down for hearing; (c) advise the client that, if he or she so wishes, he or she should immediately obtain the services of another counsel to represent him or her in the case on the date of set down and, if he or she does not have the financial means to engage the services of counsel, he or she may apply for legal aid to the Director Legal Aid, Ministry of Justice, Windhoek; and (d) advise the client that, should he or
she fail to obtain the services of another counsel, he or she will in
all likelihood be required to present his or her own case or defence at
the hearing. CASE NR.: …………………………………… PLAINTIFF / APPLICANT SUMMARY IN TERMS OF CPD/E 1 (d) Counsel for Plaintiff / Applicant Summary of facts and Legal Issues "Plaintiff instituted action against Defendant for
payment in the amount of N$150 000. |