Commonwealth judges discuss compensation procedures

over 30 judges from several African coutries are attending a workshop in Kigali on legal compensation procedures.It was observed that compensation for damages is a complex aspect of justice.“When it is dependent on the discretion of the judge, compensation becomes subject to disparity because different judges can order varying amounts of damage compensation on very similar cases,” Chief Justice Sam Rugege said.“So far our laws are not clear on the determination of compensations, so we are trying to learn from other countries in order to develop our own guidelines on how to determine damages and how to calculate costs a litigant is entitled to.”Judge Benjamin Marie-Joseph, the President of the Intermediate Court of Mauritius, argued that courts should hire experts such as economists and doctors to help them determine the extent of damage caused so as to decide on a fairer compensation.“If an individual was, for example, involved in a car accident and got fatal wounds, the court should hire doctors to help the judge show evidence, or where a defendant is reporting a breach of contract by a partner, economists can be hired to determine the loss he suffered,” Marie-Joseph said.“The judges are not experts on such things and with help from experts in particular fields, they can make the best decision”.Some judges contested the idea, saying it would only work sustainably if the cost for hiring experts was met by the parties in the lawsuit.“Let us not forget that most courts run on fixed budgets and usually have no funds fixed to pay for the services of experts. Therefore, it should be made clear to the parties that after a court decision is made, they will be the ones to pay for these costs,” Judge Charles Mkandawire from Namibia said.Experts are sometimes hired in Rwanda, especially in complicated cases, according to Chief Justice Rugege, but their costs are covered by the losing side.“Our courts don’t have money for that purpose; usually they pay for experts in advance or give a guarantee that the money will be paid by the losing party,” Rugege said.“But this caused us a lot of problems because sometimes payments are delayed, and if we try to pay up by borrowing from another line of budget, we may not be able to recover it. So it is now up to the party to follow up and recover his costs”.The general principle regarding damages is that a person should be put in the same situation they were before they faced damages. Although no profits are expected in a judgment, the judges further debated about the difference between general compensation and compensation arising from lost interest in a business breach of contract.

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Commonwealth judges discuss compensation procedures