Published: September 11, 2026
MONROVIA — Liberia’s Commercial Court cannot deliver the fast-track justice it was created to provide as long as it operates under the same Civil Procedure Law that governs ordinary civil cases, former Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Yuoh said Thursday, calling for a separate procedural code for the court.
By Gibson Gee
That law, she said, contains procedural avenues lawyers can use to delay proceedings, leaving a court designed to move commercial disputes quickly bound to the pace of routine litigation.
“When we talk about reform now for the Commercial Court, we have to set a different code of procedure for that court for it to indeed perform as a fast-track court,” Yuoh said.
Yuoh spoke as a panelist at the three-day National Non-Performing Loans Resolution Conference.
“The proceedings before the Commercial Court, this court that’s supposed to be fast-track, are supposed to be in accordance with the Civil Procedure Law,” she said.
She said she was not speaking for the Judiciary. “I’m not speaking for the Judiciary now. I’m not endowed with the authority to speak for the Judiciary. My mandate, as per my letter of invitation, is just to share my experiences,” Yuoh said.
Her argument was not that judges should disregard existing procedure, she said, but that the legal framework itself must change if Liberia expects specialized courts to deliver specialized and faster justice.
Yuoh said she saw how procedure can stretch a case during her tenure as chief justice, when she regularly visited magistrate courts to observe proceedings. On one visit to a magistrate court in Bensonville, she said, she watched defense counsel make an extensive submission seeking a postponement in a case she later learned involved persistent nonsupport.
The Judiciary cannot rewrite the laws governing court procedure on its own, Yuoh said, citing the separation of powers. Matters established by law, including the qualifications and appointment of judges and justices, cannot be altered by the courts, she said.
“This is the separation of powers. We cannot do that,” she said.
The Judiciary Law does give the Supreme Court authority to set policies for a merit system within the Judiciary, covering justices, judges and administrative staff, Yuoh said.
“But we cannot legislate,” she said.
Yuoh also said courts cannot assume jurisdiction over a dispute simply because parties are publicly making allegations or calling for judicial action. A matter must first be properly brought before the court, she said, before the court can exercise jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter.
On allegedly false documents presented in court, Yuoh said a party who disputes a document’s authenticity must raise the challenge through counsel and through the proper legal process.
“The court cannot help you with false documents,” she said. “Only evidence moves the court, not mere talking.”
Yuoh did not say who should draft the procedural code she is proposing, though she said the Judiciary cannot legislate.
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