We, the private sector members of the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (otherwise known as Pemudah) are writing to share our views on recent changes that have been introduced by the judiciary to manage cases in the courts and the Bar Council’s response to these changes.

As members of the private sector working towards a more conducive business environment, we engaged the Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi in a series of meetings early this year to look into ways to ensure the speedy and efficient disposal of commercial cases.

The huge backlog of court cases affected not just businesses and our global ranking in the World Bank Report of Doing Business, but it also affected investor confidence in Malaysia. All parties agreed that the said backlog and delays have to be addressed as it was a cost to all parties except to those who stood to gain by the delays.

In looking for solutions, we agreed that commercial cases needed to be resolved more speedily and that a system that could work more efficiently was urgently required.

It was pointed out to us that 80 percent of the delays in the courts were requested or caused by lawyers who took on more cases than they could handle. This occurred because the flexibility of the court management system then allowed it.

The chief justice assured Pemudah private sector members that the establishment of the Commercial Courts and a new system of case management would assist in reducing the backlog efficiently.

We understand that the new system that has been introduced only allows lawyers to take on cases according to their firm’s capacity to handle them. We believe that such a system is required to address the backlog and legal firms should expand their capacity if the volume of business is higher than their firm’s capacity, consistent with the practices of other private sector entities.

If there is indeed a shortage of lawyers that possess the necessary knowledge in dealing with, for example, commercial law matters like intellectual property, perhaps the government should seriously consider liberalising specialised areas of the legal profession to allow the entry of foreign expertise into Malaysia.

This would allow the private sector a wider choice and to be served in a more timely manner and at the same time resolve the issue of the backlog.

While we acknowledge the importance of the quality of justice, we also believe that there is an urgent and concurrent need to take care of the inefficient and slow disposal of cases, the costs of which are borne mainly by the business community.

We would like to urge the Bar Council to work together with the judiciary to address this long- standing issue and to give the new case management system a chance to resolve the backlog in the courts.

The postponement of cases should only be granted on medical or other extenuating grounds.