Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo
A JUSTICE of the Court of Appeal in-charge of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, Justice Irene Charity Larbi, has lauded lawyers, magistrates and judges who refer litigants to use the mechanism to settle cases in their courts, saying the mechanism helped the judiciary to settle 1,571 cases last year.
This, she said, had helped to clear a backlog of cases that were pending before the courts in the country. Justice Irene Charity Larbi disclosed this when she launched this year’s ADR week at the Sunyani Magistrate Court B in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
According to her, ADR week is a period set aside by the judiciary in the country to allow litigants the opportunity to decide whether to continue with a case pending before a normal court or use ADR for resolution. When parties in a dispute agree to use ADR to settle their dispute either in words or in writing, then a judge is obliged to refer the case to a mediator for settlement.
Launching the week under the theme, ‘Quality Justice, the Role of ADR,’ Justice Irene extolled the benefits of using ADR to settle cases for both parties and court officials. She therefore appealed to lawyers to recommend the use of ADR to their clients for fast adjudication of cases. She revealed that last year alone, 3,486 cases were referred to ADR for settlement and out of that, 1,571 cases were dispensed of. That, she noted, was about 45% of cases settled.
Justice Charity Larbi explained that because the Chief Justice wants fast-track settlement of cases by the courts, 490 mediators had since been attached to 87 courts in the country.
Recommending the use of the mechanism to lawyers, judges and litigants, Justice Larbi stated, “The time has come as a nation for us to deepen our commitment to doing justice by resorting to interventions that make access to justice more meaningful than the adversarial system that we are used to.”
Answering questions on which cases ADR can be used to settle, the JUSAG, President, Alex Martey, said ADR could not be used to settle criminal cases such as robbery, murder, rape, among others.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani
danielyaiodayee@yahoo.com