Lawyers urged to adopt e-practice to tackle COVID-19 pandemic
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo and Justice John Bamgbose from the Ogun State Judiciary have called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to adopt electronic practice (e-practice) to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 scourge in Nigeria.
They made the call while delivering a lecture at the 2021 NBA Ibadan Law Week, which had the theme: ‘The impact of COVID-19 and other health challenges on the legal profession in Nigeria: The need to embrace E- practice as an alternative.”
Prof. Oyewo suggested that the Nigerian Judiciary Information Technology Policy document should be speedily institutionalised to enable the Judiciary to deliver justice and services through Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
According to him, both the Bar and Bench must collaborate towards the establishment of e-practice in Nigeria, stressing “training of lawyers must be reviewed in the Nigerian Law School and faculties of law to embrace ICT.
This, he said, would equip law students with global standard lawyering skills that would produce fit-for-purpose lawyers and not outdated and unproductive misfits.
“The necessary legal framework must be established to protect all persons in the value-chain of legal service delivery of e-practice,” he said at the session chaired by Justice Uche Agomoh of the Federal High Court, Ibadan and moderated by Chief O. Ogunkeye.
Oyewo emphasised that COVID-19 foisted upon the global community a new way of rendering legal service through e-practice, adding that any community of legal professionals that refused to join the trend would be perceived as abnormal and pay dearly for the consequences of its abnormality.
Also speaking, Justice Bamgbose from the Ogun State Judiciary said anyone who would not embrace e-practice would end up being miserable.
“Work will be easier when we engage in e-practice. You will be involved with many people, share problems and get solutions faster and easier. If we don’t get involved in it, people will take over our chance. So let us all get up and think about it, we cannot be backward,” he said.
