JEDDAH: The implementation of the Kingdom's new specialized judicial system will increase the shortage of judges, according to Abdullah Al-Othaim, Head of the District Court. He was addressing members of the lawyer's committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wednesday. The shortage of judicial personnel will not be solved in the foreseeable future because of the rapidly expanding population of the country, said Al-Othaim. He explained that the new system, however, will help judges to specialize in certain areas of the law. He also pointed that the new system will see some tasks moved from the District Court to the General Court, such as rights issues. Penalty issues will also be moved from the General Court to the District Court after changing the latter's name to the Penal Court. The Penal Court will only deal with penalties in cases such as murder,” said Al-Othaim. He also said there will be new courts specializing in marriage, divorce and family-related cases. He explained that changes to the system are taking a long time because of the complexity of the process. “To change the system in the District Court, we need to change the system of the judicial proceedings which also requires changing the appeals system and so on,” said Al-Othaim. He said five judges are currently being seconded from their duties to ensure the new system is implemented. Al-Othaim added that his administration was the first to launch the e-Court system, but it failed. “The failure was because of a lack of strong service providers and well-qualified IT personnel. We cannot completely depend on the e-Court to accept cases, especially after the website went down for two weeks, which created more problems for citizens,” said Al
