R EPORT OF V ISIT TO A H IGH C OURT OF

J USTICE
H IGH C OURT -11,
R ING -R OAD , I BADAN , O YO S TATE .
O N 23 R D J ULY 2010

(A P SYCHOLOGICAL A SSESSMENT )

A T ERM P APER P RESENTED B Y

A BOYADE -C OLE B. O M ATRIC N O : 146350

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF

MS C .LCS PSYCHOLOGY
(LEGAL, CRIMINOLOGY AND SECURITY)

UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

25TH JUNE 2010

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GENERAL OUTLINE:

1. Introduction

2. Aims & Objectives

3. Methodology

4. Observation:
i. Location:
ii. External Environment
a) Outside Perimeter
b) Compound
iii. Internal Environment
a) Court Room
b) Judges Chambers

5. Personalities of Persons in the Court Room

i. Judge:
a) Observation
b) Interview
ii. Court Clerks
iii. Court Orderly
iv. Lawyers

6. Court Proceeding
i. Case Mentioned
ii. Examination of Witness

7. Psychological Opinion

8. Conclusion

9. References

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1. INTRODUCTION:
a. The legal drama that unfolds in law courts are a site to behold even though they may be
abstract to the lay man who only sits and strains his ears to understand the legal vocabularies
and expressions legal counsels exchange with the judge as an umpire, seated high up his
podium to determine the fate of the accused person who is perhaps lost in the whole drama
but only relies on the spoken assurances and wit of his counsel to wriggle him out of the
legal web.
b. The report therefore took a look at the effect of location, external and internal environment
of the court; the court room decor, outlay and personality of the judge which depicted
perceived command, control and flow of communication from a psychological perspective.
Witnesses’ and lawyers’ total outlook including their conduct and the seamless interplay of
legal prowess were all laced with psychological undertones to impress the judge and tilt the
scales of justice in their favour as each and every party had the singular intention of having
their respective submissions granted.
c. All cases heard at the High Court-11, Ring-Road, Ibadan, were civil in nature as at time of
visit as such there was no opportunity to observe the behaviour of an accused person and
victim(s) during court trial which would have formed a crucial part of the report.

2. AIMS & OBJECTIVES

a. TO review from a psychological perspective the behaviours of all persons or group of
persons observed during the court proceedings.
b. To observe the effect of such behaviours on the outcome of justice
3. METHODOLOGY:
a. The persons and organizational factors (human and physical) that may favourably or
otherwise affect the outcome of the trial and psyche of accused persons were considered in
the assessment.
b. Court-11, High Court of Justice, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo Stae was the representative sample
for courts.
c. Instruments used in the assessment were basically restricted to:
 Unstructured Interview with and
 General observation of the locality, external and internal environment, court room
layout, lawyers, witnesses, court clerks, orderly and particularly the judge.
 Unfortunately there was no sitting on any criminal matter as at time of visit to the court.

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  A session of meeting was held with the Judge (Justice )
4. OBSERVATIONS:
a. LOCATION:
The High Court is situated inside the same premises with other courts of similar jurisdiction
which is visibly located along the outward journey side of Ring-Road Ibadan. Its proximity
to an easily accessible inter locking road network gives the citizenry the impression that
justice whenever and wherever required is not farfetched. The venue of the court is a stone
throw from the largest industrial estate in Ibadan, Oluyole Industrial Estate.
b. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT:
i. OUTSIDE PERIMETER:
The outside perimeter was clean though not evenly fenced.
ii. COMPOUND:
1. Non personnel of the court who arrived the earlier than 08:30am did not have the
opportunity to enter the premises of the court for the singular reason that the day
being Wednesday was set aside for sanitation purposes. Notwithstanding the
elaborately designed car park, some vehicles parked littered the grass verges though
others were carefully parked in the spaces lined out.
2. A towering statute of lady Justice was obviously positioned for all those who had
business to conduct in the premises to see and know from its outlook that justice is
blind, no respecter of persons and shall be delivered without fear or favour. The
feminine gender outlook of the statue symbolised the fairness which women are
seemingly said to possess based on a Greek mythology. The sword in its right hand
represented the swing and swiftness by which justice shall be served while the scale
on the left hand is indicative that every piece of evidence tendered shall be weighed
against its relevance, admissibility and that of an adversary before justice is served.
c. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT:
i. COURT ROOM:
The court room was adorned with fading polished wood panelling with a red worn out rug
laid on the higher pedestal upon which the Judge presided from. Some parts of the ceiling
had given way and spiders webbed the high corners of the walls. There was no public
address system installed hence audibility was low. It was noticeable that the only metal file
cabinet could not contain court case files as over seventy were seen to have littered the
floor behind the court clerks and partly on the thirty inches high podium were the judge
was seated. The public gallery was not well lighted neither did it have adequate ventilation.

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 The insufficient squeaky long wooden seats were not enough for the about twenty-seven
lawyers that appeared in court. Only five of the lot of lawyers were able to squeeze
themselves in front row seat. Others had to squash and manage themselves on the
remaining seats.
ii. JUDGE’S CHAMBERS:
A spacious office with not too comfortable visitors’ seats. The chamber was adorned with
law books displayed on shelves. A red rug was also laid on the floor of the chambers and
the two doors also painted red. The side table was however observed to be dusty. Three
bottles of traditional herbal mixtures amongst other things were placed on the refrigerator.
5. PERSONALITIES OF PERSONS IN THE COURT ROOM:
a. JUDGE: (Justice O. M Olagunju)
i. OBSERVATION:
The Judge sat on an elevated position which was about 30 inches above the ground. He had
a well built posture, right-handed with a gold ring on the index finger of his left hand. He
appeared very definitive, approachable, painstaking, attentive, cheerful looking,
unassuming, firm and quite observant. He endeavoured to capture everything said by
counsels and witnesses that appeared before him in long hand writing. He protected
interest of lawyer’s client. He advised and was intermittently comical but remained stern
and in control of court proceedings. Lawyers present gave courtesies while addressing the
judge.
ii. INTERVIEW:
His lordship admitted that it could be stressful and laborious sitting and writing for too
long but he devised a coping strategy of taking stress relieving medication which included
the bottles of herbal concoction placed on the refrigerator. He assured that the entire courts
in Oyo State would soon be computerized and that the only delay in its usage was the need
to localize the voice recognition capability of the computers vis-à-vis taking cognisance of
the local diction. He explained that friendliness or otherwise exhibited is an individual
disposition of judges and concurred with my observation that he does not hesitate to
express his displeasure when taken for granted but that he makes it a duty not to scare
away young counsels to enable them build their confidence. He opined that witnesses
ought to be well schooled by their respective counsels before giving evidence in court. On
a light mood he admitted that since judges are like other humans their personal knowledge
may come to play while balancing the scale of justice hence judges need to be conscious
and cautious to avoid such as it could be used as legal excuse to set aside judgement. The

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 judge expatiated that the state would soon establish an alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
office and that the judiciary has been enjoined to encourage legal parties to seek as option.
He further explained that it would allow for consent judgment particularly on simple
matters which is hoped would decongest the courts. To the best of his knowledge, the
colour combination of the court rooms and judges’ chambers have no bearing with or
effect on dispensation of justice. He also admitted that some lawyers do appear dirty and
shabby in his court but often times they are invited into his chamber and rebuked.
However, when such counsels remain incorrigible he does not hesitate to report their
despicable conduct to the Nigerian bar association. He emphasised that presence of senior
advocates of Nigeria would have necessitated other lawyers to recede to the back seats.
b. COURT CLERKS:
There was a male court clerk sandwiched between two other female ones. The three were
neatly dressed. The male clerk was visibly engaged as the court sitting progressed. He was
the only one that seemed to attend to the judge in the course of the proceeding and
announced cases to be heard. At an instance he was chided by the judge for to ensuring a
process service which a counsel complained of.
c. COURT ORDERLY:
A non commissioned police officer assigned to provide personal security to the judge
during court proceedings. However he did not bear his weapon. He appeared quite
assuming, somewhat absent minded and ostensibly not bothered about his outlook. The
unarmed posture of the orderly portrayed an absence of assurance of security and safety in
the court room which is required by the judge to perform his duties without molestation
and perceived fear.
d. LAWYERS:
There were about twenty-seven (27) lawyers that appeared in court, five (5) of which were
females. A hand few of them wore tatty or/and torn gowns without shame or remorse. A
female legal counsel who examined the only witness that took stand in court during the
visit was eloquent and asked the witness leading questions. She appeared unruffled and
obviously prepared by the way she examined her client. Her colleague, a male was clean
but not tidy and was not eloquent but succeeded in confusing the witness during re-
examination with the view to painting her as untruthful.
6. COURT PROCEEDINGS:
a. CASES MENTIONED:
At exactly 09:00am, the court clerk announced the presence of the judge by calling all

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 present in court to attention. Everyone stood up and in obeisance to the judge. Of the
twelve (12) civil cases that were attended to only one (1) involved a witness giving
evidence. Others were merely mentioned and briskly adjourned after legal tussles between
the lawyers. All persons inside the court showed respect to the Judge by bowing whenever
they entered or exited from proceedings. The judge disallowed a lawyer who expressed his
intentions to withdraw his services in absence of his client. He was advised to do so
whenever both himself and his client appeared in court on the next adjournment date.
There was no appearance of senior counsels referred to as Senior Advocates of Nigeria
(SAN). Courtesies and murmurings took place amongst lawyers while proceedings ensued.
A particular lawyer informed the judge of his protest appearance because he was not duly
served the court process. It was observed that as the numbers of hearings progressed, so
lawyers thinned out of court. The judge had a laborious task of taking down the proceeding
in long hand writing himself. The words “as court pleases” were unanimously echoed by
lawyers in response to any declarative words by the judge.
b. EXAMINATION OF WITNESS:
The only witness examined before the court went on break was a female. She was young,
within the age bracket of (27-32) years. She was tidy and neatly dressed but slightly
fidgety and not composed. Appeared not properly or adequately rehearsed before giving
evidence. She was reminded severally by her counsel to address the judge while answering
questions poised to her. She was initially examined in chief by the counsel of the party that
presented her to give evidence in their favour and thereafter cross examined by the
opposing counsel with a view to debunking what she earlier said and casting doubt in
evidence she gave in chief. Her counsel declined the opportunity she had to re-examine
her. In the course of being cross-examined, she was admonished by the judge to answer
within the context of the questions asked. The essence of the oath she took was brought to
her knowledge by opposing counsel before he asked a question in a very circuitous manner
that ringed in the witness and unknowing to her pulled the pedestal off her feet. She had to
wait for the judge to give her the go ahead before she could leave the witness stand.
7. PSYCHOLOGICAL OPINION:
a. Confidence & Control: The elevated position of the judge coupled with the obeisance
and echo of “as your lordship pleases “ rendered unanimously by persons present in
response to any declarative pronouncement made by him gave the judge perceived
confidence and control of his environment and all those therein. This I would concur is
required for judges to establish to enable carry out their duties without fear or favour.

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b. Phobia: The location of the court was devoid of noise but the seat space in relations to the
persons present was chocking and gave a feeling of claustrophobia particularly at the seats
of the lawyers. This is the fear of having no escape and being closed in. It is typically
classified as an anxiety disorder and often results in panic attack WIKIPEDIA WEBSITE
(2010)
c. Confirmation Bias: (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency for people
to favour information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses, independently of
whether they are true. This results in people selectively collecting new evidence,
interpreting evidence in a biased way Wikipedia Website (2010). It is hard to discern
whether the judge’s unsavoury experience with the witness’ employer’s attitude regarding
his share certificate as blurted out by him would make him bias and influence his
judgement though he informed the group of the consequences thereof.
d. Persuasion & Impression Management: Persuasion is a process by which people use
messages to influence others. Persuasion typically uses information and the emphasis in a
persuasive message is on influencing the receiver (rather than merely providing
information and letting the receiver make up his/her own mind). Persuasion attempts to
change minds or get people to act LEE MCGAAN (2010). Impression management on the
other hand is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious process in which people attempt to
influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event; they do so by
regulating and controlling information in social interaction PIWINGER & EBERT (2001, PP.
1–2). The lawyers and the only witness observed endeavoured to persuade the judge to
consider matters in their favour through their gesticulations, nuances, excuses and
references to legal authorities.
e. Acquiescence Effect Theory: In a subtle manner, the opposing counsel who cross-
examined the only witness made the witness give in and agree with two contradictory
statements which he framed for agreement thus portraying either this witness or a previous
one as untruthful.
f. Contact Hypotheses: the contact hypothesis is a way of improving relations among groups
that are experiencing conflict. GORDON W. ALLPORT (1954) is credited with the
development of the Contact Hypothesis, also known as Intergroup Contact Theory. The
judge explained the impeding establishment of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
office which would afford the opportunity of bringing people of legal opposites together.
g. Deception: Communication senders attempt to manipulate messages so as to be untruthful,
which may cause them apprehension concerning their false communication being detected.

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 Simultaneously, communication receivers try to unveil or detect the validity of that
information, causing suspicion about whether or not the sender is being deceitful BULLER
AND BURGOON (1996). There was so much deception observed all in the process to outwit
one another. An example was the outburst of the lawyer who frowned against the
behaviour of his colleague because his colleague who appeared earlier for another case
assured him that he would still be around but only for him not to return back in court. This
may be an intentional tactic to frustrate the counsel and his client.
h. Politeness & Courtesies: Politeness is the expression of the speakers’ intention to mitigate
face threats carried by certain face threatening acts toward another MILLS (2003, P. 6).
Another definition is "a battery of social skills whose goal is to ensure everyone feels
affirmed in a social interaction". This is observed in the way and manner legal counsels
address the judge and are courteous towards one another.
8. CONCLUSION:
a. The legal system provides a means to an objective and unbiased decision on violators of
the law which is expected to be achieved through explicit procedure and rule of law. The
laws and punishment prescribed for breaches are the same and do not change during one
court proceeding to another but different verdicts and punishment are observed to be
achieved. Ostensibly, the legal system is largely directed by individuals and group
behaviour rather than by the law and in as much as these individual and group behaviours
exhibit above stated psychological phenomena it shows that there are more that goes on in
the court rooms than what the law actually stipulates.
b. It can therefore be concluded that the compelling drama of human behaviour observed
makes it obvious that psychological issues abound during any trial in a court room and thus
the collaborative need for the presence of pundits who have mastered the science and
systematic study of human mind and behaviour cannot be overemphasized.
9. REFERENCES
a. BULLER AND BURGOON (1996); Honors: Communication Capstone Spring 2001 Theory
Workbook http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/interpersonal/deception.html
b. GORDON W. ALLPORT (1954); Wikipedia Website (2010);
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_hypothesis
c. LEE MCGAAN (2010); Monmouth College, Introduction To Persuasion,
http://department.monm.edu/cata/saved_files/Handouts/PERS.FSC.html
d. Mills, (2003; p. 6); Wikipedia Website (2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_theory

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e. Piwinger & Ebert (2001, pp. 1–2); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression_management
f. Wikipedia Website (2010); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
g. Wikipedia Website (2010); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claustrophobia
h. ChangingMinds.org(2010);
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/acquiescence_effect.htm

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