ANNUAL REPORT 2010 CONTENTS VISION, MISSION AND VALUES 01 FOREWORDS 03 CONSTITUTION AND JURISDICTION 09 SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 13 • Opening of the Legal Year • Mass Call • International Agreements • Inaugural LASCO Award THE SUPREME COURT BENCH 19 • Changes to the Bench • Judges’ Profile • Judges’ Participation in Local and Overseas Events 2010 INTERNATIONAL PROFILE 31 • The Middle Templar profiles the Supreme Court and its Building • Rankings in International Surveys • Overseas Conferences, Attachments and Speaking Engagements • Visits by Distinguished Guests STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 39 • Supreme Court Staff Workplan Seminar • Legal Colloquium • Case Management Officer Scheme • Learning and Management Department & Hearing Support Group • Organisational Accolades TIMELINESS OF JUSTICE 45 • Workload Statistics • Waiting Periods • Caseload and Disposal Relating to Disciplinary Proceedings in 2010 QUALITY OF JUSTICE 53 • Significant Decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Court of 3 Judges • Electronic Practice Directions and Electronic Rules of Court • New Amendments to the Practice Directions and Rules of Court ACCESSIBILITY TO THE COURTS 63 STAFF AND ORGANISATION 65 • Corporate Challenge • Learning Day • Staff Welfare Activities • Staff Awards 2010 • Corporate Calendar 2010 VISION To establish and maintain a world-class Judiciary. MISSION To superintend the administration of justice. VALUES Integrity and Independence Public trust and confidence in the Supreme Court rests on its integrity and the transparency of its processes. The public must be assured that court decisions are fair and independent, that court staff are incorruptible, and that court records are accurate. Quality Public Service As a public institution dedicated to the administration of justice, the Supreme Court seeks to meet the needs of court users, with an emphasis on accessibility, quality and the timely delivery of services. Learning and Innovation The Supreme Court recognises that to be a world-class Judiciary, we need to continually improve ourselves and our processes. We therefore encourage learning and innovation to take the Supreme Court to the highest levels of performance. Ownership We value the contributions of our staff, who are committed and proud to be part of the Supreme Court. 01 JUDGES AND STAFF OF THE SUPREME COURT OF SINGAPORE FOREWORDS FOREWORD BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE electronic discovery practice direction (“the e-discovery PD”) – now Part IVA of the Practice Directions – was in force. The e-discovery PD provides a set of guidelines and best practices to aid litigants in handling the ever-increasing volume of electronic documents. In the coming months, we will press ahead with introducing similar guidelines and best practices to facilitate the presentation of electronic documents in the Court of Appeal, and at the same time, we hope to reduce significantly the amount of paper that is generated for each appeal. On a related note, our use of information The year 2010 saw further progress in the technology in court administration and court administration of justice. In addition to our procedures continues to attract international maintaining critical benchmarks for clearance attention. In 2010, the Supreme Court rates and waiting periods for matters to be received delegates from 89 jurisdictions – heard, the 2010 Rule of Law Index published surpassing the last notable peak of 72 by the World Justice Project ranked Singapore jurisdictions recorded in 2008 – who were first for access to civil justice among all the interested to find out how we manage the countries surveyed. The Supreme Court has Supreme Court so efficiently. We also signed also introduced and refined a number of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding innovations to ease the burden of those who with the Supreme Court of New South Wales have to use our services. to work closely and expeditiously to give opinions about what the law of each other’s One example would be our fully-searchable jurisdiction is on a particular issue that is electronic versions of the Supreme Court submitted to the court; this procedure will Practice Directions (“the Practice Directions”) allow Singapore courts to avoid getting the and the Rules of Court to make it easier for law of New South Wales wrong and vice users to access these materials. These have versa. Even our court building was featured also been made available as electronic books in a US publication called ‘Retrospective of which can be downloaded and read on Courthouse Design 2001 – 2010’ published mobile phones and tablets. The year 2010 by the National Center for State Courts. was also the first complete year in which the 04 In June, the Supreme Court Bench welcomed leading thereto, and which will also the appointments of Dr Philip Nalliah Pillai, coordinate and oversee a new scheme of Mr Quentin Loh Sze-On and Mr Steven compulsory continuing professional Chong Horng Siong as Judges of the High development for the legal profession and the Court. Prior to their appointments, Justice Foreign Practitioners Examination. Pillai, Justice Loh and Justice Chong served as Judicial Commissioners, displaying a firm The Supreme Court has launched its two- commitment to the application of the rule of year staff work-plan to ensure that all staff law without fear or favour and infusing their keep pace with new developments and wealth of experience into our local challenges in building a world class judicial jurisprudence. I congratulate them and wish system. We look ahead to 2011 with renewed them many fulfilling years on the Bench. commitment to uphold the highest standards of quality, efficiency and service in the Judicial duties aside, many of the Supreme administration of justice. Court Judges have taken on leadership roles in key legal organisations, such as the Singapore Academy of Law and the Board of Legal Education (“the BLE”), in which they provide direction on law and policy. In 2010, Justice V K Rajah was appointed as chairman of a committee that was instrumental in the Chan Sek Keong recent creation of the Singapore Institute of Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Singapore Legal Education, which will soon replace the BLE in administering Part B of the Singapore Bar Examinations and the preparatory course 05 FOREWORD BY THE REGISTRAR Foreword last year that this scheme would “transform the Legal Directorate” by empowering officers to shift from being process-driven to being knowledge-driven in their work. Supported by a change management programme, the scheme was fully implemented this year, and officers have since been rotated through the Directorate’s different functions. Having gained new skills and a broader understanding of the entire litigation process, they are now equipped as knowledge workers to deliver higher levels of performance. I am pleased to share that the Supreme Court It has been another significant and satisfying was awarded various accolades in 2010, year at the Supreme Court. Under the such as the Public Service Milestone Award leadership of the Chief Justice, and with the and the ISO 9000 certification renewal with fullest support of the Bench and the successful conversion to the ISO 9001:2008 indefatigable efforts of our staff, we have standards. While we take pride in these progressed to give further expression to our achievements, we are aware of the need to core values of integrity and independence, constantly challenge ourselves to excel even quality public service, ownership, and further. Our first staff workplan of the new learning and innovation. We expanded our decade has been rolled out to consolidate work scope in 2010 and at the same time our key priorities and lay out the detailed maintained efficiency levels, so as to continue plans for the next two years. Its intent is to to deliver service standards of the highest identify and plug the gaps in our workflow quality to court users. This was achieved, or professional development to position us inter alia, by a critical re-examination and to pursue more challenging goals in the innovative re-engineering of our business future. The workplan has adopted the theme processes to anticipate and meet the more of ‘Achieving Creative Excellence’ or ‘ACE demanding requirements of our operating it’ to aptly encapsulate the need to harness environment. our creativity to make a quantum leap. This workplan was developed in collaboration In this connection, we have already seen the and consultation with all levels of staff, and fruits of the Case Management Officer focuses on four key thrusts to actualise our Scheme initiated in 2009. I had said in my strategic vision – Customised Training, Cross 06 Collaboration, Knowledge Management With this culture embedded, sharing (“KM”) and Paradigm Shift. knowledge in our daily work and functional areas is but a natural extension. We have In this Foreword, I would like to outline the also introduced e-learning programmes so framework of our workplan, since it is the as to allow staff to learn independently and blueprint as well as inspiration for all the make progressive leaps at their own pace events and activities in this and the next with each mouse click. annual report. The first key thrust, Customised Training, builds on a strategy that has served The second thrust, Cross Collaboration, us well. Where we have the in-house underscores the value-added partnerships experience and expertise, we draw on these that help us bring about enduring resources to design and execute functional organisational change. To combat any and educational training programmes to meet “working in silos” mentality within the our sui generis needs. Where we need to tap Supreme Court, we promote greater on expertise outside the organisation, we interaction through inter-Directorate rigorously source for subject matter experts committees and ad-hoc projects. Externally, to better guide us. This strategy ensures a in regard to matters which concern them, targeted and relevant training curriculum for we engage and work closely with our partners all roles. and stakeholders, including The Law Society of Singapore, the Singapore Academy of Law We have an intensive in-house Continuing and the Ministry of Law, amongst others.