It is pleasing to hear that the chief justice has decided call upon the courts to emulate the practice of resolving court cases within a year as shown by the courts in Miri, Sarawak.

The backlog of cases can be reduced by being strict on the postponement of court hearings and also by abiding by court rules and regulations.

I know of one civil suit that was filed after the within-six-years period had lapsed and even then it took more than a decade to resolve.

The court registrars should not accept civil suits filed six years after the event. The plaintiff and defendant are often ignorant of the court rules and the lawyers happily earn legal fees due to the ignorance of their clients.

Thus the court registrars should not allow citizens to be victimised by unscrupulous lawyers. The court registrars should be held responsible for the victimisation of clients by lawyers who file civil suits well after the six-year time limit has expired.

There are cases where lawyers have earned legal fees over decades for such suits. In fact, lawyers for both parties have been hand-in-glove to earn from their respective clients all because clients are ignorant of court rules.

These ignorant clients are kept informed by their lawyers on communication between the two lawyers and the postponements of hearing for a number of times with no hearing in court.

And after earning a good sum in legal fees, the lawyers then apply to strike out the case claiming that one party did not turn up in court though this could have been done very much earlier as one party indeed did not turn up in the earlier years.

In one case, the High Court registrar sent a reminder on the four-year backlog of a civil suit and it was still delayed by another eight years .It is real wonder how the lawyer managed to delay it this long even after a High Court reminder?.

Thus the courts should disallow unlimited posponements of court hearings and be strict on civil suits filed after the six-year expiry period for legal action to be taken.