The Judicial Service of Ghana has commenced a week-long mass mediation of cases through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system across all 136 ADR connected courts nationwide, to decongest the courts.
The exercise is a cardinal activity marking the 2024 ADR Week celebration on the theme: “Building the pillars of justice through ADR,” and was launched in Cape Coast on Monday.
The Service has called on all stakeholders including disputants, mediators, lawyers, magistrates and judges to fully cooperate to further the cause of the resolution process.
Other activities lined up for the celebration was a nationwide media engagement on ADR, sensitisation of court users in all ADR connected courts, and sensitisation of judges, magistrates, staff and mediators.
Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah, the Judge in charge of ADR at the Judicial Service, who launched the week-long celebration, entreated offenders in minor criminal cases to leverage the ADR under the plea-bargaining law to avoid standing trial.
“If such minor criminal cases are resolved through plea bargaining, courts across the country can focus on more serious criminal cases and dispose them of quickly,” she said.
Justice Mensah-Homiah said people who used ADR obtained quicker and more efficient resolution of their cases and cautioned that the adversarial justice system was stressful and time-consuming owing to the backlog of cases over the years.
Justice Mensah-Homiah revealed that the Service, at the beginning of the 2021/2022 legal year, had a backlog of 122,072 cases and received 124,443 new cases that year, bringing the total cases to 246,515.
Of the number, 119,386 cases, representing 48.4 per cent were resolved.
Again, the Service commenced the 2022/2023 legal year with 127,129 cases and received new cases to bring the total number to 256,381, out of which 126,119 representing 49.2 per cent were resolved.
She said at the end of that legal year, there were130,262 cases still pending.
“ADR emerges as a beacon of hope, offering innovative and efficient pathways to resolve disputes outside the courtroom,” Justice Mensah-Homiah said.
“I wish to add that ADR Mechanisms do not only empower individuals, families, businesses and communities to take control of their disputes but foster cooperation, mutual understanding and more sustainable resolutions,” she stressed.
She said Ghana had achieved significant feat through ADR but needed to do more, citing some challenges that led the settlement rate to plummet for 72 per cent in 2010 to an average of 44.9 per cent between 2011 and 2021.
The Service, she indicated, had taken strong measures to address some of the challenges including payment of mediators’ allowances and sustained public sensitisation to create awareness.
Justice Mensah-Homiah said the ADR system furthered the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 which seeks to promote peace, justice and strong institutions.
She urged all stakeholders to respect and protect the integrity of the ADR system and stop downplaying it because, “It has come to stay, and it is the duty of all stakeholders to nurture and sustain it.
‘We should not allow individuals who benefit from avoidable litigations to harm the ADR process,” she said.
Justice Kofi Akrowiah, the Supervising High Court Judge in Cape Coast, appealed for more ADR Connected Courts in the Central Region.
He said the region had only 17 ADR connected courts, including two district courts and 15 circuit courts, and urged government to grant the Service the necessary approval to engage more staff to enhance service delivery.
GNA