How should a judge manage numerous litigants appearing before him?

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The judge must prioritize litigants based on who arrived first. It is recommended to appoint someone to record the arrivals in sequence, granting precedence to the first comer. Ibn al-Mundhir suggested a method involving a string stretched between the judge's seat and the litigants' area, where slips of paper containing names are threaded according to arrival time. The judge then draws the first-arrived case first. The deciding factor is the precedence of the claimant, as the right belongs to them. If a litigant, having been prioritized due to prior arrival in one dispute, then raises a second claim against the same opponent, that second claim is postponed until all present litigants have been heard, unless the opponent has no other defense.