By: The Hon. Ann Claire Williams, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Ms. Shani A. Moore Weatherby, M.J., J.D.

The November opening session of the Liberian Term of Court began with a song and sermon.  The powerful voice of a county sheriff filled the jam-packed formal courtroom inside Monrovia’s Temple of Justice as she belted out a traditional African chant.  The Supreme Court chaplain repeated his rhythmic refrain, “When justice is done, the people rejoice,” and the court spectators roared with approval.

The official opening of the 2010 Term of Court also marked the start of an innovative educational program.  For five days, a group of federal judges and lawyers from the United States and United Kingdom trained 53 of their counterparts from Liberia.  The training, which was sponsored by Lawyers Without Borders and funded through a grant by World Hope International, Inc., and the U.S. Department of State, was critically important, so much so that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, The Honorable Johnnie N. Lewis, closed the circuit trial courts for the week so judges, prosecutors, and public defenders could benefit from the program.

The training had two components. The first was teaching trial techniques using the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) “learning by doing” method.  The trainers would give a mini-lecture and then demonstrate an opening statement, direct and cross-examination, and closing argument.  The Liberian participants were then placed in smaller groups and practiced the trial skill themselves. This process allowed the trainees to immediately implement the techniques they were taught and to receive instant feedback from a trainer.  The trainees’ performances were also taped, and the trainee would go directly to a video review room where another trainer gave more suggestions for improvement.  The trial training section also included special exercises on developing expert witness testimony and on navigating tricky evidentiary challenges.  Further, the Liberian judges participated in private training sessions on judicial ethics, and on case management. 

The program’s second part focused on the law surrounding trafficking in persons.  This segment of the program was delivered in conjunction with the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice based at Cornell University Law School, and was led by two of the school’s professors.  Two of the school’s law students also helped prepare the program, and traveled to Liberia to assist in its delivery.  The training described the elements of trafficking, and detailed the international conventions and Liberian laws that prohibit it.  Trafficking, the participants learned, involves a trafficker either tricking or forcing a victim to go to another location where he or she is exploited.  Receiving victims is also a crime, and consent of the victim is not a defense.  In Liberia, if a person goes to trial on a trafficking charge and is found guilty, the punishment is at least one year in prison.  Traffickers of children, or those who have caused physical harm to their victims, are subject to longer sentences.  This part of the training addressed sensitive topics such as interviewing potential victims of trafficking.  Participants were also given instruction on how to distinguish trafficking from other types of illegal activity, such as smuggling, where there is no deception and the person who is transported is free to leave at any time. 

The delegation of trainers was led by Judge Ann Claire Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  Three United States District Court judges also assisted in directing the program: Judge Timothy Burgess from the District of Alaska, Judge Virginia Kendall from the Northern District of Illinois, and Judge Richard Roberts from the District of Columbia.  They were joined by 18 trial attorneys, legal academics, and general litigators from across the nation and “across the pond.” All had the common goal of pursuing justice in partnership with the legal community in Liberia. 

Throughout the course of the week, it became clear that the Liberians face significant obstacles in their judicial system.  One hurdle is a lack of resources.  The courts do not have enough funding to supply basic texts such as codes of law to both judges and prosecutors, so they are expected to share.  The money shortage also affects infrastructure.  There are frequent rolling blackouts, which can delay trials for hours.  And few lawyers and judges have access to electricity at night, which inhibits their ability to prepare for trial the next day.  Another problem is a lack of education.  Approximately 44% of the population is illiterate, which leads to problems in finding jurors, and, indeed, jurists, who can evaluate the written aspects of any case.  A third problem is merging traditional tribal beliefs into the modern system of justice.  Trial by ordeal, or “sassywood”, although banned by the national government, has been slow to die in more rural areas.

An additional problem is the current length of trials.  The training addressed this issue, and identified practical ways of improving trial efficiency. Currently, for example, attorneys frequently ask on direct examination, “Tell me everything you know about this case.”  The witnesses could talk for a few minutes, or a few days, depending on what they know.  While this may produce a great deal of information, much of it could be irrelevant or otherwise inadmissible.  This is particularly problematic because there is no court reporter, so the official record is dependent on what the judge is able to capture in handwritten notes.  During the program the trainees were taught how to ask short, tailored, open-ended questions during direct examination, which makes it easier to generate and detect important facts. For the cross-examination exercises, trainees were shown how to ask closed-ended questions in a logical pattern, which allows the trier of fact to follow the direction of testimony.  

The American and British trainers came not just to teach, though, but to learn. One valuable lesson was the importance of collaboration between public interest organizations and private entities.  Lawyers Without Borders partnered with the law firms of Linklaters, Shearman & Sterling, and White & Case to fund portions of the program.  Linklaters had also previously dedicated 100 lawyers firm-wide into creating a comprehensive index of all Liberian case law to provide to the Liberian legal community.  NITA also helped support the program by designating and sponsoring one of its trainers to travel to Liberia and help lead the demonstrations and training.  And to help defray the program’s expenses, several members of the training delegation covered their own costs in traveling to and staying in Liberia, including attorneys from The Cochran Firm, Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, and Jones & Mayer.  An additional lesson learned was the importance of alternative training tools.  For instance, each trainee was given a graphic novel (“comic” book) that depicted realistic, country-specific trafficking scenarios.  It literally illustrated substantive law and best practices for working with these difficult cases. 

A final lesson learned was how technology can help in the training process.  The judicial ethics session, for example, used an Audience Response System (“ARS”).  Each trainee was given an electronic remote.  Various scenarios were then presented, such as whether it was appropriate for a judge to accept a gift that was given to her at a funeral.  Using their remotes, the trainees voted on what the judge should do.  The ARS system tallied the results and presented them instantly.  The ARS system was also used when the trainees were shown how to detect valid trafficking cases. The “victims”, which were computer-simulated avatars, described potential acts of transportation, confinement, and/or exploitation.  The trainees voted on whether each scenario satisfied each element of trafficking.  Because the participants were voting anonymously they could express their true opinion without fear of judgment.  It was also a quick and fairly accurate way to gauge the opinion of the group as a whole.  Finally, it sparked conversation as some people debated why they voted a certain way.

At the program’s closing ceremony, the training delegation received confirmation that the training was useful. One of the Liberian judges commented, “As soon as I open court on Monday, I’m going to apply the principles I learned.”

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