FILING HARDCOPY WHEN DECISION OF COURT IS ALREADY REPORTED IS UNNECESSARY

LAW REPORTS NEED NOT BE CERTIFIED

It is an accepted practice that law reports are usually cited by parties and copies of such law reports made available to the court, even from the bar. A court of law can make use of relevant judgments or decisions in law reports cited by learned counsel without insisting that judgments in the law reports be certified by the appropriate court(s) which delivered the judgments. The two previous judgments relied upon by the 4th respondent were respectively reported in (1985) 2 NWLR (Pt. 9) 734 and (2003) 13 NWLR (Pt. 836) 119. It is a matter of common public knowledge, especially among members of the legal profession – Legal Practitioners, Law Lecturers and Law Professors, Law Officers, Magistrates, Khadis, Judges and Justices that the acronym “NWLR” means “Nigerian Weekly Law Reports” published by the Nigerian Law Publications Limited founded by one of the finest, brightest and most hardworking legal practitioners that Nigeria has ever produced – Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), of blessed memory. In the discharge of my duties, speaking for myself, I have found the law reports and publications by Nigerian Law Publications Limited most reliable and very helpful. In the absence of allegation of supply or suppression by the law reporters of any part in the two judgments as reported in the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (NWLR), cited above, I am very comfortable that the learned trial judge rightly relied on the two law reports in determining the 4th respondent’s notice of preliminary objection, notwithstanding that certified true copies of the said judgments were not filed with the said notice.

– Adumein JCA. Adewoyin v. Executive Governor (2011)