Content Of A Good Judgement

In law, a judgement is a decision of a court regarding the rights and liabilities of parties in a legal action or proceeding.  Judgements also generally provide the Court’s explanation of why it has chosen to make a particular court order.
According to Lord Macmillan, a judgement can be defined as a reasoned pronouncement by a judge on a disputed legal question which has been argued before him. It is a literary composition, but a composition subject to certain conventions. It possesses its own characteristics and its own standards of merits. The art of composing judgements is not taught; it is acquired by practice and by study of the models provided in the innumerable volumes of the law reports in which are recorded the achievements of past masters of the art.
Some constituent parts which a good judgement must contain in case of a trial court include; the issues or questions to be decided in the case, the essential facts of the case of each party and the evidence led in support, the resolution of the issues of fact and  law raised in the case, the conclusion or general reference drawn from the facts and law as resolved and the verdict and orders made by the court.  A good judgement therefore, must be seen to have evaluated the evidence of parties fairly, adequately and comprehensively, apply the law so as to leave no one in doubt and take a firm decision. In Abdullahi V. State (1995) 5 NWLR 125 the court stated. thus:
“The writing of a judgement is an art. In carrying out this art, although each judge is free to follow his own style to produce a good judgement, it is very essential that a judge must show a clear understanding of the facts of the case, the issues involved, the law applicable and from all these to draw the right conclusion and make a correct finding on the credible evidence before him. In writing a judgement, the underlying factor is fairness to the parties to avoid doing anything that would result in any miscarriage of justice”.
The Court of Appeal in Asogwa V. Chukwu (2003)4NWLR (Pt80)549 held that a good legal writing is to include accuracy, brevity and clarity. This however did not exclude the wisdom in the use of appropriate attributes of the art of judgement writing. A good judgement therefore is expected to be accurate, succinct, factual and vivid. It should be a masterpiece of brevity.  Justice Uche Omoh in his paper delivered at the Continuing Education in Judiciary for judicial officers held in Zaria in 1989 titled, “Art & Science of Judging” said, “A succinct or concise judgement in their context must not be too brief. It should certainly not be too long. It should therefore be of average length. This involves covering all the required contents of a good judgement in summary”.
Good judgement, enhances the image and perception associated with the justice delivery process and also increase public confidence in the judiciary.  A well written to the point judgement based on comprehensive analysis of fact and law in my opinion, is not only an indication of the intellectual strength of a judge but also is a sign of a worthy judicial system.

Nkechi Bright Ewere