By S. Matthew M. Quoi, Jr.
SANNIQUELLIE, Nimba County — Cllr. Tarlo N. Wehyee has assumed office as Resident Judge of the Labor Court in Nimba County following his nomination by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, confirmation by the Liberian Senate and subsequent commissioning.
Judge Wehyee was formally commissioned Thursday at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia alongside Judge Nelson B. Chineh, Resident Circuit Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court in River Gee County, and 15 Court Marshals.
He is expected to begin presiding over cases during the August Term A.D. 2026, which opens Monday, August 10.
The Nimba Labor Court will handle labor and employment disputes, including wrongful termination claims, workplace injury and compensation cases, collective bargaining disagreements, unfair labor practices, employment contract disputes, severance and benefit claims, and alleged violations of Liberia’s Decent Work Act of 2015 and other labor laws.
The appointment comes as Nimba County continues to experience growth in mining, agriculture and commercial activities, sectors that employ thousands of workers and have generated increasing demand for the resolution of labor disputes.
The establishment of the court is intended to decentralize specialized judicial services and reduce the need for workers and employers in Nimba to travel to Monrovia to pursue labor-related cases.
The legislation establishing the Labor Court in Nimba County was passed by the House of Representatives on July 10, 2025, following concurrence by the Liberian Senate.
The bill was introduced on March 7, 2025, by then-Representative Samuel Gongben Kogar of Nimba County Electoral District #5, who now serves in the Liberian Senate.
Kogar argued at the time that the expansion of mining, agriculture and other commercial activities in Nimba had contributed to a rise in labor disputes and created the need for a specialized court in the county.
He maintained that establishing the court would improve access to justice by allowing workers and employers to resolve employment-related disputes closer to where they live and operate.
Judge Wehyee previously served as Public Defender assigned to Nimba County, representing indigent defendants in criminal proceedings.
Born on February 15, 1965, in Monrovia, Wehyee traces his family roots to Marlay, Boe and Qualla Clan in Tappita District, Nimba County.
He graduated from William V.S. Tubman High School in 1986 and later earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, with emphasis in Accounting and Economics, from the University of Liberia. He also obtained a Diploma in Computer Science in 1994 before earning a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law in 2013.
His assumption of office marks the operationalization of the specialized Labor Court in Nimba, which is expected to provide a local judicial forum for resolving disputes between workers and employers under Liberia’s labor laws.
