Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has urged the Federal High Court Headquarters to delay or suspend its June 20, 2025, deadline for ending the manual filing of new cases in its Lagos State Judicial Division by legal practitioners.
The senior lawyer gave his reasons in a statement on Monday titled “URGENT APPEAL FOR SUSPENSION OF DIGITIZATION OF FEDERAL HIGH COURT REGISTRY.”
The FHC Headquarters formally notified all legal practitioners and the general public that the e-filing platform will become operational in the Lagos Division effective June 23, 2025, while manual filing is to end by June 20.
The Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Sulaiman Amida Hassan, Esq., announced that e-filing will, by June 23, become the standard procedure in Lagos, the nation’s economic nerve centre.
Hassan stated that all cases instituted prior to the go-live date shall continue to be processed manually until judgment is delivered and those matters are finally disposed of.
All legal practitioners were enjoined to be guided accordingly and to ensure strict compliance.
Reacting to the development, Adegboruwa advised that there is a need for caution, as filing and prosecution of cases go beyond e-filing and processing, adding that they involve the consideration and application of fundamental issues relating to the constitutional rights of litigants and their lawyers.
He highlighted that, given the Federal High Court’s 2025 annual long vacation from July 28 to September 16, “the implementation of the e-filing regime can be delayed till the new legal year in September 2025 to give enough time for lawyers and litigants to prepare themselves for the new system.”
According to him, the second reason for proposing a postponement of the e-filing regime in Lagos is the issue of facilities, space, and convenience.
He claimed that the current registry of the Federal High Court in Lagos cannot accommodate the volume of work associated with e-filing, at least based on the current experience in other courts where this has been tried.
“All things being equal, the Lagos Division of the Court should relocate to its ultra-modern new court complex very soon,” he stated.