Circular No: 026/2024
Date: 16 February 2024
Dear Members of the Kuala Lumpur Bar,
On 9 October 2023 and 8 November 2023, the Kuala Lumpur Bar’s Civil Practice & Court Liaison Committee (“KLBC CPCLC“) held meetings with the Managing Judge of the Kuala Lumpur Civil High Courts and the Managing Judge of the Kuala Lumpur Commercial High Courts and Civil Subordinate Courts respectively.
The purpose of the meetings was to provide and receive feedback, and discuss matters concerning the administration of the Civil and Commercial High Courts of the Kuala Lumpur Courts.
Delay in Appearing for Hearings and/or Case Managements
We received feedback that there are repeated instances where lawyers are late in appearing for their hearings/trials, and/or in replying to e-review Case Managements, including when the same are fixed to be heard before the Judges.
We would like to remind members to be present on time for their matters at the times directed by the relevant Court, and in any event by 8:45am at the latest. This is important to ensure that any technical issues experienced can be resolved in advance. Furthermore, members are reminded to ensure that they are always dressed appropriate for Court matters, even if the same is scheduled to be conducted virtually.
Staggered Time for Hearings and Case Management
We highlighted that members are facing issues where multiple matters are scheduled before the Court at a specific time. This would result in parties’ having to wait, at times for prolonged periods, for their matters to be called without any certainty therefore not enabling to make arrangements for other matters/meetings in the day.
The Managing Judges took note of the same and conveyed that they will highlight to the Judges to implement staggered times for the scheduling of matters, where possible.
Common Dates from the Parties and Last Minute Adjournment for Non-Urgent Reasons
We were informed that the Courts are facing difficulties in clearing the backlog of cases due to parties not providing the Courts with sufficient free dates within a reasonable period of time and/or seeking for last-minute adjournment of scheduled hearings/trials.
We urge members to try to accommodate the dates given by the Court, where reasonably possible, and not request for adjournments at the last minute to avoid any delay in the completion of matters before the Court.
Certificate Of Urgency (“COU”)
We received feedback that there has been an abuse of the COU procedure by members, specifically where COUs are filed by members who then subsequently seek for an adjournment of and/or delayed scheduling of the relevant hearing upon being notified by the Court of the urgent hearing date. Members are reminded not to file COUs unless there is real urgency in the matter. Where COUs are filed, members must be prepared to appear before the Judge on the available date set by the Court, including but not limited to, the afternoon of the date of filing or even the next day. Furthermore, members are encouraged to provide an explanation for the urgency of the matter within the COU.
Filing Under Wrong Code
We informed the Managing Judges that we have received feedback from members who, upon inadvertently filing proceedings under the wrong code, had been instructed by the relevant Registrars to withdraw the matter and re-file the same thereby incurring additional costs.
We have been informed that upon the filing of proceedings, the Registrar should not request lawyers to withdraw and refile the case. Instead, the Registrar should transfer the proceedings administratively, where necessary, or in the alternative, fix the matter for mention before the Judge to obtain directions in respect of the same.
Notwithstanding the above, members are advised to pay close attention when selecting the relevant filing codes and to refer to the Arahan Amalan Bil. 6 Tahun 2013 and Arahan Amalan Bil. 7 Tahun 2013 before selecting the same.
Recording Of Proceedings
We have proposed to the Court to consider providing the recording of proceedings via a link and/or hard-drive instead of burning them in CDs. This is as most laptops these days do not have CD drives.
We received positive feedback towards this proposal and were informed that the Courts will look into the same.
Parties Appearing in the E-Review Using Another Person’s ID
We were informed by the Courts that there are still frequent instances of members sharing E-review IDs and/or using another member’s E-review ID to log into an E-review session.
We urge members to stop this practice immediately. Members should only appear in E-review proceedings using their own ID. It is to be emphasised that the firm’s admin may create user IDs for all the lawyers in the firm at no additional cost, therefore there is no reason for the sharing of IDs.
Installation of Wi-Fi in the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex
The CPCLC took the opportunity to raise our previous proposal for the installation of Wi-Fi throughout the entire Court Complex.
We were informed that the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex have included the proposal in the proposed budget for 2024/2025 but would not be able to guarantee that the said allocation will be given. In the meantime, the CPCLC have written to the Minister of Communications, Minister of Digital and Minister of Law to advance the said request for sufficient budget to be provided to the Courts.
Proposal To Publicise All Decisions Given in Appeals Even Where There are No Grounds of Judgment
We have proposed to the Courts that a platform be set up at the Kehakiman website to enable parties to conduct a search for the decisions of any appeals (whether at the High Court or Appellate Courts). This is to ensure that parties are not relying on decisions without realising that the said decision had been overturned on appeal without the provision of grounds of judgment.
We have received a positive response from the Court to the proposal and the matter will be brought to the attention of the e-Court division.
As of now, a search can be conducted on the portal if lawyers have the case number. Alternatively, lawyers may contact the COA Registry to enquire on the status of the appeal by providing the names of the parties.
Unnecessary Letters Shared in the CMS
We were informed by the Managing Judges that there are members who have adopted the practice of copying the Court in all correspondence exchanged between parties, especially where it involves matters resulting in disputes between the parties. We urge members to only copy the Courts in relevant correspondence and not to involve the Court in correspondence exchanged between the parties on matters disputed unless it is to specifically seek directions from the Court.
As we enter into the new Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee’s term of 2024/2025, the CPCLC shall continue to engage with the Judiciary and Administration Team of the Kuala Lumpur Court’s in order to provide feedback from the members and raise proposals to facilitate the smooth and expeditious administration of matters in order to ease practice for members. For the 2023/2024 term, the CPCLC received approximately 54 feedbacks from members, of which approximately 49 have been resolved.
Alvin Oh Seong Yew
Chairman
Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee
Nimalan Devaraja
Shugan Raman
Co-Chairpersons
Civil Practice & Court Liaison Committee