Nairobi, Aug. 6 -- A frivolous or trivial court case is a lawsuit that lacks legal merit or factual foundation. In most cases, such suits are filed to harass an opponent, squeeze out a nuisance settlement or simply delay an outcome.

A single trivial case might pass for a minor nuisance, but the cumulative economic damage it inflicts on a country's justice system and litigants is enormous, though entirely preventable. Every frivolous suit occupies judicial time and courtroom space that should be available to litigants with genuine grievances.

Justice is not always delayed by complex litigation; sometimes it is delayed by cases that should never have been filed in the first place.

There is, therefore, an urgent need for a frank national ...