Should litigants write court orders?

I RECENTLY represented a joint management body (JMB) in court without engaging a lawyer. While I appreciate the heavy workload faced by our courts, one aspect of the process left me puzzled.

After the magistrate made her decision in open court, I was required to prepare the court order myself. Since the opposing solicitor had approved its wording, I believed it was ready for filing and paid the prescribed fee to file it as a “Perintah”.

The registry later informed me that certain standard wording had to be added before the order could be accepted. The corrections were purely procedural.

This made me wonder: Why can’t proposed court orders simply be e-mailed or uploaded to the registry for review first? Once the registry confirms that the wording is in order, only then should the final order be formally filed and the filing fee paid. This would save us time spent going to the court complex to file a draft order.

More fundamentally, should members of the public be expected to draft official court orders – documents that ultimately bear the court’s own signature and seal?

Self-represented litigants are becoming increasingly common especially with the new artificial intelligence-aided systems available. For people like us small administrative improvements such as a draft review process or standard templates would reduce unnecessary costs, repeated trips to court, and procedural mistakes, while making the justice system more accessible without compromising its integrity.

DR JOSEPH JESUDASAN

Melaka