Hassan B Jallow, Chief Justice of The Gambia
By Fatou Sillah
The Chief Justice of The Gambia, Hassan B. Jallow, has raised concerns over the mounting workload faced by judicial officers, stating that courts across the legal system are struggling to manage the increasing number of cases.
Speaking at the opening of the 2025 legal year, he emphasized the pressing challenges within the judiciary.
“The Courts across the entire legal system, Qadis, Magistrates, judges, have continued to struggle to cope with a very heavy workload. Each magistrate, each trial judge in this jurisdiction has an average of 150 cases at any time to hear and determine. And many judicial officers exceed this figure significantly,”
He underscored the complexity of the cases before the courts, noting that none can be considered minor, as each requires diligence, fair hearing, and due process.
“And each of these cases, none of them is a small case, because each of these cases requires equal diligence, equal fair hearing, and equal due process, no matter the nature of the claim. And the cases continue to flow into the system. The majority of civil cases, for instance, arriving in the West Coast region, relate to land disputes, which are often more complex and take considerable time to resolve,” he explained.
Despite these challenges, judicial officers continue to make every effort to manage the growing caseload. Chief Justice Jallow revealed that at the start of the 2024 legal year, there were 6,317 pending cases carried over from 2023. Throughout 2024, an additional 6,678 new cases were filed.
“Judicial officers continue to try their best amidst many challenges to cope with this immense workload, which is continuously on the increase. We started the 2024 legal year with a total of 6,317 cases as of 1 January 2024. And this was a carryover from 2023. In the course of 2024, a total of 6,678 new cases were filed. New cases in addition to the carryover. Of the new cases filed, 4,849 were civil cases, and 1,826 were criminal cases of various kinds,” He stated.
The Chief Justice further stressed the need for systemic solutions, calling for measures to not only address the backlog but also explore ways to prevent disputes from escalating into legal battles.
“This total of 6,678 represented an increase of 25% over those cases registered in 2023. This is a very, very heavy increase, which we need to continuously bear in mind, not only on how to resolve these cases, but to look at the genesis of these cases, the circumstances leading to some of these cases, and to explore ways and methods of prevention and resolution outside the judicial process. So the total number in our docket for 2024 was actually 12,995 cases,” he said.
The Chief Justice’s remarks highlight the urgent need for reforms to address the judiciary’s growing workload and ensure efficient case management.