Her Ladyship Justice Irene Charity Larbi
Justice of the Court of Appeal and Judge in charge of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Her Ladyship Justice Irene Charity Larbi, has indicated that about 3,041 cases were successfully settled last year; between January to December 2019, through the mediation system.
The number represent 49 percent of a total of 6,209 cases recommended by the courts to be settled through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system.
Her ladyship made the revelation at the Ho Central market during the national launch of the ADR week celebration.
The weeklong programme (from Monday, March 9, to Friday March 14, 2020) is under the theme: Making Our Courts User Friendly Through the Use of ADR.
The ADR week which is expected to be observed across the country, is aimed at creating awareness among the public to reduce the number of litigation at the courts and also save disputing parties time and money.
The ADR system involves a variety of techniques for resolving disputes without resorting to litigation in courts.
The system uses mediation mainly to resolve issues and has been established since 2005 under what is referred to as Court-Connected Alternative Dispute Resolution (CCADR) practice.
Mediators are mainly opinion leaders, chiefs, other traditional leaders.
Alawyer heads the mediation team.
Speaking at the launch, her Ladyship Jutice Irene Larbi stressed that ADR is a good channel for resolving and finding solutions to cases outside the court room because the regular court process is characterized by some factors that delay justice.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” she added.
ADR reduces the backlog of cases in the courts and is “a reliable partner to the traditional justice delivery system;” hence, the need for all to embrace and nurture it for a quality justice delivery.”
The use of local language dismantles the language barrier under the conventional court system. It also provides privacy as compared to the court system which is open to the public and the media.
Lawyers also find the ADR system beneficial in that it usually give clients a satisfying results. Satisfied clients are likely to be repeat clients and recomend the Lawyer to others too.
Justice Irene Larbi said these are just a few benefits of ADR adding that since its implementation nearly 15 years ago, the Court-Connected ADR has demonstrated verifiable success. To this end, she looks forward to a day that ADR will not just be a complement to the justice delivery architecture, but “a major plank which would be the go-to option for seeking justice as long as the nature of the case admists of the intervention of ADR”.
Togbe Howusu, Chief of Ho Dome who chaired the occasion and a member of the Volta ADR Mediation Team highly recommended the use of ADR for all kinds of disputes, be it domestic, land, compensation among others.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (K.duodu@yahoo.com)