ADR reduces court backlog cases  by 32,745 in 10 yrs  – Justice Mensah-Homiah

The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) programme, over the past decade, has reduced the load on the courts by 32,745 cases, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, with oversight responsibility for ADR, Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah, has revealed.

“This appears to be a perfect case backlog reduction strategy, which is a great relief for trial judges and magistrates. ADR drastically reduces the litigation period, the parties come up with their custom-made solution to their dispute, and at the end of the day each party goes home satisfied. Unlike the adversarial system, ADR results in a ‘win-win’ situation,” she noted.

Justice Mensah-Homiah revealed these on November 10 when she spoke on the benefits of ADR as used in the courts, at a public durbar at Fijai, in Sekondi, in the Western Region, as part of the week-long activities which ends on November 17, to promote and entrench ADR interventions in Ghana, each legal year.

She said, the Chief Justice has set up a committee to work on the operationalisation of ADR under the General Jurisdiction of the High Court and “When the work is complete and submitted to Her Ladyship’s approval, she may issue a Practice Direction on ADR.”

“I am happy to say that work is far advanced. We are working on a manual setting out the procedure for settling cases; various forms have been developed for the referral of cases, consent forms, settlement agreement forms,” she assured.

Similarly, Justice Mensah -Homiah said the committee was working on a practical guide for parties, judges, mediators and lawyers in the conduct of commercial matters under Order 58 of CI 47 as amended by CI 133.

She indicated that, the Chief Justice, later, may issue a practice direction as well, saying “We look forward to your support and co-operation to make this work.”

Justice Mensah-Homiah hoped by the next ADR week celebration, the Judicial Service would have finalised its work and would “share the outcomes with our cherished court users and the general public.”

On the way forward, she said, the service would consider the setting up of Community Mediation Centres to make justice more accessible to the grassroots in every part of the country.

 FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, FIJAI

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