The Commercial Court Track was established after much deliberation and discussion by Judges and stakeholders in year 2007.

The purpose for the creation of the Commercial Court Track was to deal with disputes involving transactions which were commercial in nature and issues of disputed trade and commerce dealings. The cases which were commercial in nature were identified and removed from (at that time) the Common Civil Track List and grouped together, creating what is now known as the Commercial Track Listings List. This move was taken to assist in reducing the increasing number of civil cases which were being heard in the Common Civil Court Track.

Aggrieved parties and Lawyers whose cases were on the Inaugural Commercial List appeared for their court hearing on the 16th of July 2007. This is the day the Commercial Court Track sittings officially began.

The Commercial Court Listing Rules came into force on the 27th of September 2005 and were made pursuant to Section 184 of the Constitution and Section 8 of the National Court Act (Chapter no 38); these include all other powers enabling the Rules which govern the National Court of Justice on matters relating to the conduct of all commercial cases.

The purpose of the Rules was to establish guidelines in which a Commercial list would be created in order for Commercial matters to be expediently resolved.

The Commercial Court Track currently has an estimated case load of 450 cases which are registered under WS, OS, MP & CIA. These are cases which have been identified and registered in the Commercial Court Track.

Fresh Commercial cases are identified by the Registrar or his delegate before being listed in the Commercial Court Track. The checklist used by the Registrar or his delegate to identify a commercial case is as per the list provided below on the nature of commercial cases, this are as per the Commercial Listing Rules.

The Commercial Court Track has 3 types of court list which are as follows, the Direction Hearings List, the Motions List and the Trial List.

The current practice on listing of matters is as follows: 1. By request from parties via letter seeking a date, 2. By filing of a Notice of Motion and appropriate documents, 3. As per Directions from Court.

Commercial Cases are sometimes referred for Mediation. Once argued in Court and after all facts are presented the presiding Judge may refer the matter to be mediated.

The National Court Rules are applicable in the Commercial Track alongside the Commercial Listing Rules.

The Commercial Track Team currently comprises of 3 officers who are, Steven Sarufa, Fulo Koesi and Sarah Wesley being the Team leader. The team has so far strived to ensure that matters listed or requested to be listed before the Court complies within the set rules of the National Court Rules and the Commercial Listing Rules. We strive to serve our customers / clients with the highest standard of service within the set guidelines provided to us by the Rules.

NATURE OF COMMERCIAL CASES

List of the nature of commercial cases as per the Commercial Listing Rules 2005

• A dispute concerning an amount greater than K500, 000 and would have arose out of a Commercial transaction
• An important issue involving trade or commerce
• Construction of a business contract or a commercial document
• Insurance and re-insurance
• Banking & Financial Services
• Provision & Enforcement of Securities
• Business & Commercial Agents
• Exploitation of or rights to Technology
• Entitlement to Intellectual Property
• Takeovers
• Exporting or Importing of goods
• Carriage of goods by land, sea, air or pipeline
• Exploitation of Natural Resources
• Conduct or Operation of markets, exchanges, or commodity boards or regulators
• Application of Independent Consumer and Competition Commission Act 2000
• Proceedings under not matters where the summary judgment procedure is available to the plaintiff
• Corporation Law

Proceedings which concern the above topics but do not exhibit any serious commercial element or where there is no real dispute, should not be listed on the Commercial List

The Commercial List Judge has discretion as to whether a matter should be retained or entered on the Commercial List

Contact Us

Ruth K. Vai

Track Leader - Commercial

National Court RegistryPh: 675 3245765

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
P O Box 7018, BOROKO, National Capital District