GOV.BW

This service is executed by the Court Bailiffs after the Court has issued an order/Judgement/Ruling to be served on the parties.  The Service can be done personally on the litigants or the Court Bailiff can post it as a registered mail to the recipient.

A litigant/party can make a formal request in writing to the Registrar requesting for the production of the record of proceedings or transcript. Such a request/letter should indicate case number and full citation of the parties.

In order to have an application enrolled for a hearing, follow the steps below:

• Confirm that pleadings are closed; in that all that needs to be filed has indeed been filed and the case is ready for trial.
• Application is enrolled for a hearing on a date to be decided upon by the court.
• The hounourable judge and the Bench Clerk assesses cases/ applications before them through a process called Case management, to determines those that are ready for hearing on their applications.
• After the assessment and the sorting stage, the bench clerk will then identify suitable dates from the Judges Diary and slot cases accordingly.  After the slotting, the bench clerk will proceed to issue notices of set down and send them to the addresses provided by the parties. After this, the bench clerk will then prepare a court roll for the particular month.
• The court roll is then submitted to the Registrar’s office for consolidation into the Court’s Composite roll.
• The bench clerk will then prepare pleadings for the Judge and the nominated members, and have them ready a week before the trial date.
• The case will then be placed before the judge in preparation for trial.  On the trial date, the bench clerk will check the parties’ attendance against the court roll for the day and presents the interpreters brief to the litigants.  During trial, the bench clerk offers interpretation of the court proceedings from English to Setswana and vice versa to the litigants that are not comfortable in the English language, as court proceedings are conducted in the English language.
• The court will then hear the case on the date set and make its determination.

After the matter has been concluded, the Court or Judge can immediately or at a later stage pronounce his/her decision which can be in the form of a Court Order, Judgment or Ruling. Litigants will then be issued with a copy.

The parties may have their own Pre-hearing Conference; or the court may issue an order directing the parties to hold a Pre-hearing Conference before the trial either by themselves ( where parties will agree on the time, date and venue of the meeting) and file minutes of such.

If the parties are unable to hold such by themselves, then the Registrar can be appointed to chair such a hearing and file minutes.  At the Pre-hearing conference, parties must identify the following: 

• Facts that are agreed.
• Facts that are in dispute.
• The issues that the Court is required to decide.
• Preliminary points of law which the Court is required to decide.
• The relief claimed, and if compensation, the amount and the method of calculation. Parties should compute amounts of their claims, before attending the Pre Hearing Conference and provide proof of such computation.
• Discovery and exchange of documents.
• Number of witnesses, including expert witnesses, to be called at the hearing.
• Issuance of a subpoena, if same is required.
• Necessity for on-the-spot inspection.
• Language requirements on the date of trial.
• Setting of trial dates.
• Any other matter that will shorten proceedings or limit costs.

The parties must prepare and sign minutes of their Pre-Hearing Conference and file with court as directed.

• Litigants my make a request in writing for the case to be taken for Court Annexed mediation.
• The court may issue an order directing the case to go for Court Annexed Mediation.