RIYADH: In over two hours of discussions at the Board of Grievances in the presence of its chairman, Ibrahim Al-Hugail, the opinions of 180 judges differed on the mechanism being followed in the citizens' flood-related cases; some of them supported referring the case to the judge or to the secretary. During his launching of the second stage of the electronic gate, Al-Hugail said it won't be long before the Board of Grievances issues related verdicts. Regarding the referral of 30 privately employed legal people to authorities to begin investigating them regarding the flood case, he said, “Judicial verdicts will be issued soon, representing the verdict of the Board of Grievances on this case.” Al-Hugail, who addressed several other legal and judicial issues, spoke about an internal procedural matter of conformity between judges. “We receive complaints about 50,000 cases in the Board of Grievances,” he said. “In one of them, a citizen said his case was looked into by one judge whereas the court register says three judges looked into the case. If the citizen's statement is true, then this is considered to be a case of forgery.” Al-Hugail said the drain of elite judges following the detachment of the commercial and penal judiciary – the formation of separate commercial and penal courts – will not affect the performance of the Board of Grievances. “These are our judges, whether they are with us or in the general courts,” he said. “Therefore, care for them must continue even when they have been transferred. Care for them is in people's interest and people do not change. The detachment of commercial and penal courts depends on the issuance of the regulation for legal proceedings before the Board of Grievances.” Al-Hugail said the expansion of the Board by inaugurating new courts emanates from King Abdullah's desire to facilitate matters for the people, adding that there are new courts in Al-Jouf, Hail, Al-Qassim, Madina and Jeddah. During the next two weeks, courts will be opened in Jizan, Najran and Makkah, and there are plans to open courts in densely populated regions in Hafr Al-Batin, Taif, Abha and Tabuk, he added. Attention being accorded to newly appointed judges emanates from the fact that they will have roles with the Board of Grievances, Al-Hugail said. “I call upon the senior judges to take care of newly appointed judges, otherwise matters would be in the opposite direction,” he stressed. “We will train and graduate judges in the new courts. We will appoint 80 judges this year.” Al-Hugail said about 2 percent of judges depart due to personal circumstances and said there has not been any mass departure of judges from the Board of Grievances. The retirement age for elite judges will extend to 70 years, which will further ensure that there are sufficient numbers of experienced people in the positions, he added. There are ongoing efforts to maintain high levels of performance among judges and reports on inspections of their performance are kept secret between the judiciary and the inspectorate, Al-Hugail said Inspections have contributed in monitoring the standard of the judiciary and comments and remarks are conveyed to the judges, he added. He pointed out that the inspection process for judges is not intended to find faults, but to rectify their performance. Lawyers' complaints are taken into consideration, drawing attention to the issue of treating people with arrogance, which he said is a problem in the whole world.
