The following are excerpts from the actual reports of the 1980 Bar Examiners submitted to, and released to the law schools by, Madam Justice Ameurfina Melencio-Hererra, Chairperson of the 1980 Committee on Bar Examinations. I have already made a summary of this report and has posted it in this blog in the post entitled “How to pass the Philippine bar exams.” However I believe that law students and law professors will gain more by reading the full report. Although this report was made more than 27 years ago, the lessons that can be gleaned are timeless and can still very much apply to those who will be taking the Philippine bar exams. This report is also useful for law professors and law schools as this will help us re-evaluate our teaching methods in order to effectively help our students hurdle the hardest exam in the Philippines, the bar exams. The report starts out with these interesting observations: 1. With a relatively few notable exceptions, I observed a deficiency in the … [Read more...]
Inefficiency, the mother of all injustice
A lawyer friend of mine asks me to appear in one of his cases since he had several schedules during that day. The case is to be heard at Toledo City, about 50 kilometers from Cebu City, Philippines and about 45 minutes to 1 hour travel by private vehicle. So I studied the case and asked the client to drop by my house so that we can go together. The case was to be heard at 9 a.m. so we left at around 7:30 a.m. We arrived in Toledo City at around 8:30 a.m. When we went upstairs we were informed by the clerk of court that the Judge was not around. She said the judge decided not to go there that day since he was very busy with his other court. (The regular judge in this particular court was suspended so a temporary judge from another court has to take his place) She said that the hearing is rescheduled and that we will just be given notice as to when the schedule will be. I can understand the judge. It is not easy for him to hold two courts and I do not blame him for what … [Read more...]