Magistrate Edrisa Mbai of the Brikama Magistrates’ Court is apparently fed up with the seeming perpetual absence of lawyers from many of their cases before him and the magistrate had now vowed to proceed with these cases under any circumstance.

Addressing the court this week as the trial of one Lamin Mboge Sowe got stalled thanks to the absence of his solicitor, Magistrate Mbai posited that it’s lamentably regrettable that it has now become fashionable to some lawyers to absent themselves from court proceedings. He pointed out that this unfortunate state of affairs does not only make the court spend inordinate amount of time on a particular case but also causes frustration to litigants.

Magistrate Mbai, therefore, urged litigants to impress on their counsels to be regular in attending proceedings involving them as he would now employ his discretion to proceed with any matter either with a presence of a lawyer or otherwise.