Justice of the Court of Appeal who doubles as the Judge-In-Charge of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah has compelled the Ghanaian citizenry to opt for ADR instead of litigation which will cost them a fortune to seek justice in the face of law.

She enlightened that the court as widely propagated was never established solely for litigation, but for equally important purposes like ADR. 

The Appeals Court Justice relayed this at the launch of the Judicial Service's Public Durbar on ADR on the theme "Building the Pillars of Justice Through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)."

Her Ladyship Justice Mensah-Homiah speaking at the launch recounted that the Judicial Service in Ghana since 2005, created the enabling environment to serve the litigating public with all the benefits of ADR in order to make quality justice real and accessible to all, especially the poor and vulnerable.

She disclosed that as many as 77,264 cases have been mediated since the inception of ADR, as 36,191 have been successfully settled, representing a settlement rate of 47%.

Having commended mediators in the Central Region, she asserted that mediators in the region in 2023 alone, received a total of 1,665 cases, to which 534 were settled, representing a settlement rate of 32%.

The Central Regional High Court Supervisor, Justice Kofi Akrowiah in his address at the launch, called on government to see to the redress of factors attributable in the general pace of the determination of cases field at various courts across the country.

According to him, these factors which sort to delay the pace of court trial includes, the inadequacy of courts and judges in the country, and the fact that courts in Ghana are not automated.

In view of this, Justice Kofi Akrowiah urged government to automate courts across the country to help scale up proceedings, as judges and magistrates resort to record court proceedings manually by writing.

Alex Nartey Esq, the Director of ADR noted that the adopted initiative by the Judicial Service of Ghana is in to aid speed up court cases to take a maximum of one month to be settled, no matter the magnitude of the case. Hence, encouraged all and sundry to embrace ADR as the way to go in the settlement of court cases.

However, per section 1 of the ADR Act, (Act 798), not all cases can be settled through ADR. By law, matters involving nationality or public interest, enforcement and interpretation of the constitution, and serious offences like robbery, defilement, rape, murder, treason, among others cannot be settled through ADR.

Source//Sompaonline.com/Eric Annan