What They Say About Delay

“I, ____________________ do solemnly swear that ... I will delay no man for money or malice ...” So help me God.” (Attorney’s Oath, Form 28, Rules of Court).

“Moreover, the omissions of respondent violated Section 5, Canon 6 of the New Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine Judiciary. Judges are mandated to perform all judicial duties efficiently, fairly and with reasonable promptness. In other words, judges should never cause judicial delay.

Delay derails the administration of justice. It postpones the rectification of wrong and the vindication of the unjustly prosecuted. It crowds the dockets of the courts, increasing the costs for all litigants, pressuring judges to take short cuts, interfering with the prompt and deliberate disposition of those causes in which all parties are diligent and prepared for trial, and overhanging the entire process with the pall of disorganization and insolubility. More than this, possibilities for error in fact-finding multiply rapidly as time elapses between the original fact and its judicial determination. If the facts are not fully and accurately determined, then the wisest judge cannot distinguish between merit and demerit. If courts do not get the facts right, there is little chance for their judgment to be right.” (Orocio v. Roxas, 562 SCRA 347, 357 - 2008)

“ “Prolonged and unjustified delay is the major weakness of our judicial system today.” Though there is a consensus that delay is a pervasive and long-standing problem facing America’s trial courts, there is great disagreement over what is actually meant by “delay”. For research purposes, it often means the age of cases or docket backlog; to the practicing lawyer, delay is the time from announcement that the case is ready for trial until the court can reach the matter; for litigants, the public, and reformers, delay is more broadly defined to include the time from the filing to disposition. Largely depending upon the definition used by the commentator, “delay” is either a cause or a result of the massive congestion in our courts. However categorized, delay has far-reaching and long-lasting effects not only on the litigants but on the administration of justice itself. Delay brings the system of justice into disrepute and breeds disrespect for law. “Justice delayed is justice denied” may sound trite, but the plaintiff and the defendant who must wait from two to five years for the disposition of their lawsuit not only suffer frustration but either or both may suffer injustice in the outcome as well. A party’s rights may change substantially as a result of the death, the disappearance, or the dimming memory, of a witness. The sustained anxiety of the litigants and their resultant dissatisfaction with the legal system are sufficient reasons to require prompt and effective measures for the more expeditious handling of civil disputes. Chief Justice Burger has observed:

There is nothing incompatible between efficiency and justice. Inefficient courts cause delay and expense, and diminish the value of the judgment Small litigants, who cannot manipulate the system, are often exploited - to use the words of Moofield Story, a former president of the American Bar Association - by the litigant ‘with the longest purse.’ . . . Efficiency - like the trial itself - is not an end in itself. It has as its objective the very purpose of the whole system - to do justice. Inefficiency drains the value of even a just result either by delay or excessive cost, or both.” (Civil Trial Manual 2, 1980). By Atty. Cesar T. Tirol