Justice Irene Charity Larbi (M) addressing the news conference
THE JUDICIAL Service of Ghana has officially opened its 2020 Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Week with an urgent appeal to Ghanaians to refer their cases to ADR considering its cost effectiveness and efficiency.
The Week is marked annually to create public awareness aimed at educating the citizenry on the activities of ADR, where stakeholders such as judges, court officials and lawyers are also sensitized.
Her Ladyship Justice Irene Charity Larbi, Justice of the Court of Appeal and Judge in charge of ADR, launched the week-long celebration at a news conference at Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region last Monday, July 13.
The theme for this year’s ADR Week celebration of the legal year is, ‘Making Our Courts User Friendly Through The Use of ADR.’
She disclosed that the programme had been extended to 131 courts across the nation with at least five mediators assigned to each of the courts. A total of 635 mediators, she said, had been trained and assigned to the 131 courts connected to the ADR programme.
Between January and December 2019, a total of 6,209 cases were mediated out of which 3,041 cases were settled representing 49 per cent settlement rate, she announced.
The ADR concept, according to her, has served as a complement to the traditional court system in making access to justice cheaper, easier, expeditious, non-adversarial and faster to the citizenry.
The Court of Appeal judge also noted that the ADR concept had helped to reduce the backlog of cases in the courts substantially due to the mass mediation exercise.
“The court connected ADR is very effective and guarantees the interest of both parties involved in every aspect of the project,” she noted.
Mrs. Larbi said ADR cuts down the cost of litigation, thereby making justice more accessible to a greater number of people.
ADR helps in terms of decongesting the courts, allowing judges to have more time in handling cases which are not amenable to ADR. This undeniably makes judiciary more efficient.
The efficiency of the justice system is one of the elements investors look out for when deciding whether to invest in a particular country or not.
They desire a place where their investments can be protected judicially. The availability of these processes assists judges to maintain a high sense of integrity with the resultant satisfaction and confidence of court users in judicial system,” she added.
The ADR programme, she stated, offers financial and emotional relief to parties insisting that the neutrality of the mediator in ADR aids the parties to clarify issues, exchange information, be open to each other, identify and analyze issues and weaknesses of their own cases and the risks involved in litigation, all with a view to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement for the parties.
Justice Irene Larbi used the occasion to encourage court users to refer their cases to ADR because it is effective and guarantees the interest of both parties, who are involved in every aspect of the process.
She said the first of two main activities that would take place during the week celebration was to give chance to parties who have their cases pending in the courts that are connected to the ADR Programme to have their cases settled using ADR.
The second, she said, was to educate the public on the service of ADR through public awareness programme and activities.
FROM David Afum, Kumasi