Browsing by Author "Tuhumwire, Innocent"

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    Assessment of Legal Information Needs and Access Problems of Lawyers in Uganda
    (Library Philosophy and Practice, 2010) Tuhumwire, Innocent; Okello-Obura, C.
    Unresolved legal problems can entrench disadvantage and increase social exclusion unless legal assistance is made available to members of the community (McClelland, 2009). “As a lawyer, and even more so as a local member, I have met a number of people who have been unable to address a small legal problem before it escalates. Often this is because they don't know what to do or where to go", (McClelland, 2009) asserts. Legal information is considered one of the essential ingredients for effective justice to be done in any democratic society. In our day-to-day life, legal issues have become part and partial of our environment. The ever-increasing number of legal cases in the country has enormously led to petitions in court by various people with hope that they will be backed up by lawyers. However, it is worth noting that timely access to the right kind of legal information determines the performance of any legal officer in any judicial process. It is on that basis that this paper examines the legal information seeking behavior of the legal practitioners, the lawyers in Uganda.
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    Sources and Means of Access to Legal Information by Lawyers in Uganda
    (Library philosophy and practice, 2010) Tuhumwire, Innocent; Okello-Obura, C.
    The availability, access to and provision of legal information is one of the key elements in transition from a closed dictatorship to a democracy. A democratic nation relies on efficient and effective judicial system. Broady-Preston and Williams (2004) note that vitally, information plays a key role in organisational/judicial efficiency, enabling firms to differentiate themselves from the competition, and improve their competitive advantage. By streamlining information provision to lawyers, time, and therefore cost savings, could be passed onto clients, achieving increased customer benefits. According to OkelloObura, (1998) legal information can be defined as the requirement or right established by law, which resides in all electronics and written records. Legal information consists of laws and rules, case law and legal literature. The history of legal information or literacy in Uganda can be traced right from the colonial days when Uganda was under the imperial rule of Britain. Britain issued four African orders in council for most of her African protectorates in 1894. These orders in council established a system of governance that among other things established a legal system. In Uganda the major order in council was the 1902 one which introduced a dual legal system. This system, as Harvey (1975) states, allowed the native institutions based on customary law to exist only with the colonial legal system. This in essence created avenues for the production of judicial resources. With the development in information sector and economy, many legal materials are now being produced calling for their identification, access to for efficient and effective/judicial services delivery. It is on that basis that this study was instituted to address among others the objectives in Section 1.3.