Chief Justice urges cooperation to entrench ADR in justice delivery
He spoke at the opening of the ADR week launched in Kumasi yesterday.
The Chief Justice, His Lordship Kwasi Anin Yeboah, has urged members of the Ghana Bar Association to cooperate with the judiciary in entrenching Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
He spoke at the opening of the ADR week launched in Kumasi yesterday.
“I take this opportunity to urge the members of the Bar as a major stakeholder of the judiciary to cooperate with us as we entrench ADR in our adjudication process,” he said.
Adding he says lawyers “who lack capacity in ADRs a matter of urgency take steps to enhance their capacity so as to enable them contribute to the success of the court-connected ADR Programme.”
The second term of the 2022 ADR week happening in Kumasi is on the theme “Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Tool for Peace and Stability.” 131 courts would be participating - 33 Circuit Courts and 98 District Courts.
The Chief Justice, who himself has authored a book on ADR, noted that it is important ADR is made a preferred choice for disputants and their lawyers.
“ADR has become a core component of Ghana’s adjudication system. What this means is that, a court in Ghana today can finally determine either through ADR or litigation. Therefore, when a judge refers a case to ADR, parties should not feel slighted. You may achieve the same result.
As such, I recommend ADR to everyone in appropriate cases. I do so because the benefits in using ADR far outweigh that of litigation.”
Background
The Judicial Service has adopted ADR as part of its adjudication process dubbed “Court-connected ADR”.
The aim of the programme is to ensure that access to justice in Ghana is made easier, cheaper, non-adversarial, expeditious, and flexible to all.
Pursuant to this, the Chief Justice in a policy directive has instituted an ADR week in every legal year term to give parties the opportunity to settle their cases through mediation and to run programmes and activities to create awareness on the availability of ADR as a compliment to the adjudication process in the courts.
