NIGERIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Abubakar Anafi, Larry Nkwor, Justice Uka-Ofor and Ayomide Abiodun, G. Elias
Requests for discovery must be served within seven days after the exchange of pleadings, and responded/objected to within seven days. Dis- covery is administered by the litigants with an element of supervision from the court. 5.2 Discovery and Third Parties Under the rules of courts in Nigeria, it is possible to obtain discovery from a third party by way of a subpoena. A third party may be compelled by way of subpoena to give oral or tender docu- mentary evidence in court. To apply for a sub- poena, a party must deliver and file the relevant praecipe forms provided by the rules, along with the subpoena, to the court registry. Service of a subpoena is required to be personal, but where personal service is not possible, service may be effected by substituted means. No subpoena will be issued unless all the court fees have been paid. Once the service of the subpoena has been effected, the third party must attend court. Failure to do so amounts to contempt of court. 5.3 Discovery in This Jurisdiction The approach to discovery differs from state to state in Nigeria. In Lagos, a party seeking dis- covery of documents must do so within seven days of the close of pleadings and the party from whom discovery is sought must produce the requested documents within seven days of the request being made or at such other time as the judge may permit. Parties are generally required to obtain discovery relevant to the issues in dis- pute, and the parties on whom such requests for disclosure are served are required to make the necessary disclosure. The exceptions to disclosure include the follow- ing: • a person cannot be compelled to produce any document that another person would be
entitled to refuse to produce if the document was in their possession; • a public officer cannot be compelled to dis- close communications (oral or written) made to the officer in official confidence if they believe this is against public interest (such communication may be given to the judge in chambers); • the court cannot compel the disclosure of information covered by attorney-client privi- lege; • a court will not compel the disclosure of communication between spouses during their marriage; • a statement in any document marked “with- out prejudice” made during the settlement of a dispute out of court is protected from disclosure and is inadmissible in court; and • classified matters under the Official Secrets Act, 2011 are not to be disclosed to the pub- lic, as such disclosure would be prejudicial to the security of Nigeria. 5.4 Alternatives to Discovery Mechanisms There are no alternatives to discovery mecha- nisms in Nigeria. 5.5 Legal Privilege Attorney-client privilege is statutorily recognised. In law, a legal practitioner must not disclose any communication made to them by or on behalf of their client in the course of the practitioner’s employment except where: • the client has expressly consented; • the communication was made in furtherance of an illegal purpose; or • the legal practitioner discovers that crime or fraud has been committed.
1040 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook