On assessing compensation in a civil proceeding

Justice is a three-way traffic not one. In a bid to effect efficient and sustainable allocation of resources and dispensation of justice in the face of challenging global economic climate and Nigeria in specific.

One of such laws is to establish the compensation in monetary terms which requires the expertise of an estate surveyor and valuer who is a trained professional, registered with the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and licensed in the practice of determining the worth of interest premised on a property/asset at specific place and time.

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Relevant stakeholders should vigorously pursue and see to it that either through enacting fresh laws or amending an existing law/act valuation report should be made a mandatory document that should be tendered in seeking redress in compulsory acquisition during civil proceedings in Nigeria.

Just as the law provides that a professional doctor certifies a dead person, professional estate surveyors & valuers in the valuation practice should opine on the value of compensation payable to a victim during civil proceedings.

It should form part of the requirements that should be tendered in court or front loaded depending on the practice directions of the court in question. The essence of this is that the court will take advantage of the professional disposition of the valuers and the burden of laborious enquiry into the adequacy or otherwise of compensation being claimed will be transferred to professionally trained valuers that are saddled with such responsibilities.

This way, the three justifiable ways are: justice to victim (the potential beneficiary of the compensation), justice to the offender (the party that will pay compensation due to breach of some duty or violation of some rights), and justice for the society which provided an environment for the contract in the first instance.

Esv. Jasper Oleka wrote from Abuja