Procedures
National Court Rules with 1,000+ Village Courts at the base
A hierarchy of Village Courts, District Courts, the National Court and the Supreme Court as final appellate court — with more than a thousand Village Courts handling the bulk of everyday disputes under custom.
Key rules
- Deadline — Most contract and tort claims are barred after six years under the Frauds and Limitations Act
- Deadline — Judicial review of administrative action requires leave from the National Court
Governing law
- National Court Rules 1983, Or. 4
- District Courts Act 1963
- Village Courts Act 1989
- Frauds and Limitations Act 1988
In practice
The formal hierarchy is conventional, but the volume of dispute resolution sits at the bottom of it: Village Courts, staffed by lay magistrates applying custom, resolve most disputes for most people and can order compensation. The Supreme Court is both the final court of appeal and the constitutional court, with an advisory jurisdiction on constitutional questions that has been used in major political disputes. Practical access to the National Court is constrained by geography and cost, so litigants in remote provinces may be effectively confined to the Village and District Courts regardless of the size of their claim.