The lawyers in Osun State are up and have continued their protest over the increment of filing fee from N4,000 to N40,000.
The lawyers had started the protest on Tuesday last week, stopping all judicial proceedings in Osun state.
They argued that the protest is because of the high price of filing cases, noting that a petition’s filing fee has jumped from N3,000 to N25,000 and Oath has increased from N200 to N1,000.
The lawyers also barred the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Adepile Ojo from entering the Court premises.
Osun State is just emulating Lagos State where filing fee has ballooned. To file a claim of N1billion in Lagos State now even if it is for general damages, you will pay as much as N500,000 for the filing at the registry.
The meaning of this is that only rich people can now approach the court for redress if they are cheated. It also means the poor that is cheated is being encouraged to take the law into his or her hands since he or she can no longer have access to the court by virtue of court’s filing fee skyrocketing.
Another effect of this is that lawyers will be having few cases since the poor that are in the majority can no longer afford to go to court to seek redress.
From the look of things and a check, the protest is still on in Osun State as there were only few lawyers around the court premises, the courts’ clerks were absent and the courts locked.