Justice of the Court of Appeal and the Judge-In-Charge of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah has detailed ADR to be a beacon of hope to speedy and efficient resolution of cases outside the courtroom in Ghana.

She said that in today's rapidly evolving world, the pursuit of justice is paramount, yet Ghana's adversarial justice system often face challenges in delivering timely and effective resolutions, which is attributable to the backlog of cases over the years.

Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah noted this at the launch of this year's ADR Week in Cape Coast, celebrated on the theme: "Building the Pillars of Justice Through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)."

According to her, the annual caseload statistics of the Judicial Service of Ghana has it that, at the beginning of the 2021/2022 legal year, there were a number of 122,072 cases pending in courts across the country, while 124,443 new cases were filed in the course of that legal year.

Bringing the total number of cases pending before courts across the country to 246,515, out of which 119,386 cases were resolved by the courts, representing 48.4%.

Whereas, at the beginning of the 2022/2023 legal year, there were 127,129 pending cases. Indicating that an additional 5, 057 cases were recorded as part of the backlog by the end of the 2021/2022 legal year.

Meanwhile, at the end of the 2022/2023 legal year, there were 130,262 pending cases. Thus, 3,133 were recorded as backlog at the end of the aforementioned legal year.

However, the Judiciary is mindful of the need for speedy and efficient resolution of cases. Yet, faced with unending challenges of case backlog.

To this end, Her Ladyship Mensah-Homiah's elaboration that ADR emerges as a beacon of hope, offering innovative and efficient pathways to resolve disputes outside the courtroom.

She highlighted that ADR mechanisms do not only empower individuals, families, businesses, and communities to take control of their disputes but also foster cooperation, mutual understanding and more sustainable resolutions.

The Appeals Court Justice bemoaned the fact that though the Court Connected Alternative Dispute Resolution (CCADR) took-off so well that in 2010, it recorded a settlement rate of 72%, only to have its settlement rate decline along the line over some challenges it encountered, as between 2011 and 2021, the average settlement rate was 44.9% but in January to May 2023, recorded a settlement rate of 37%.

She noted that the country's Judicial Service having recognized and appreciated ADR as a strong pillar of justice, has taken concrete steps to address some of the major challenges which accounted for the steep decline in the settlement rate, such as payment of mediators' allowances and sustained public sensitization to raise awareness.

Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah again awakened stakeholders of having a duty to respect and protect the integrity of the CCADR, as she impelled all and sundry to be resilient not to allow individuals who benefit from avoidable litigation to harm the ADR processes.

Supervising High Court Judge for the Central Region, Justice Kofi Akrowiah at the launch outlined the Central Region to be the 4th placed region in terms of number of courts in the country with 42 courts, comprising of 12 High Courts, 6 Circuit Courts, and 24 District Courts.

He echoed that unfortunately, only 6 out of the region's 42 courts are automated, which impedes the work of courts in the region.

Justice Kofi Akrowiah, however, propelled the ADR directorate to facilitate an increase in automated courts in the region, having had 17 out of the 42 Courts in the region be ADR connected.

Source//Sompaonline.com/Eric Annan