The Concept of Multi-Door Courthouse in Nigeria: Rethinking Frank Sander's Concept

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Professor Frank Sander’s concept of Comprehensive Justice Centre is rooted in the idea of a courthouse which provides several labeled doors, each, representing a dispute resolution mechanism in addition to the existing window and labeled door called litigation. The rationale for this idea is that from time immemorial, ADR mechanisms had proved to be more efficient and speedy in dispensing justice among disputants. Therefore, according to Professor Frank, the idea of a Comprehensive Justice Centre will offer access to justice for the citizenry and disputes would be resolved in different ways even within the established courts. To Professor Frank, the same American Courts which then applied the same legal system, appeared to handle tax disputes reasonably well, and labor disputes were routinely resolved through arbitration without enormous difficulty or waste of time, whereas, the courts handled family disputes far less effectively. He observed that the nature of a dispute has an impact on the efficiency of the legal system applied in resolving the dispute thus, the need to have court connected dispute resolution mechanisms to bridge the existing gap. This paper therefore reviews Professor Frank Sander’s idea of Comprehensive Justice Centre, examines the existing structures of Multi-door Courthouse and, its operations in Nigeria.