The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Week for the 2021 legal year has been launched in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital on Monday, November 8, 2021.
The launch was done by Justice of the Court of Appeal and Judge -In-Charge of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Her Ladyship Justice Irene-Charity Larbi.
Addressing the media, Her Ladyship Justice Irene-Charity Larbi called on Ghanaians to make use of the ADR scheme for the resolution of disputes allowed under the ADR Act 2010 (Act 798).
The Court of Appeal Judge maintained that there is verifiable evidence that ADR has been a success since its introduction 16 years ago as an intervention to ease pressure on the regular court system and create a platform that would offer disputants the opportunity to play a key role in resolving their disputes.
According to her, 131 courts dotted across the country have been connected to the ADR program with at least five (5) well-trained and certified mediators assigned each.
From January to December 2020, a total of 5455 cases were mediated out of Which 2312 cases were settled, representing a 42% settlement rate, while 4,626 were referred from January to June 2021 out of which 1941settled representing a settlement rate of 42% with 845 referred back to court while 1946 pending
Her Ladyship Justice Irene -Charity Larbi emphasized the enormous benefits of the ADR program to the country and individual disputants.
“ADR Concept has served as a complement to the traditional court system in making access to justice cheaper, easier, expeditious, non-adversarial and faster for the citizenry.
This has also helped in reducing the backlog of cases in the courts substantially due to the mass mediation exercise. This indicates that the ADR mechanism is a reliable partner to the traditional justice delivery system and must, therefore, be embraced and nurtured for a quality justice delivery system” She said.
Justice Irene-Charity Larbi stated that the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004 and the Court Act 1993 (Act 459) prescribed amicable resolution of cases before the courts as the most innovative way by which justice can be done to disputants without delay.
“It’s sustenance is particularly critical in our goal of promoting excellence, speed, and efficiency in judicial outcomes administration”
Her Lady Justice Irene -Charity Larbi, therefore, encouraged all Ghanaians including lawyers to take advantage of the ADR programs to resolve disputes.
The National Coordinator for the ADR program Alexander Nartey shed more light on the program and its limitations stating that criminal cases of felony, public interest cases, and interpretation of status, rape cases, and defilement among others are however not allowed for ADR.
“It is not every case that is amenable to ADR. Section (1) of Act 798 stipulates that Certain cases do not go for ADR and they are criminal cases of Felony, cases of public interest such as election petitions, again interpretation of status, interpretation of documents, interpretation of the Constitution, rape case, defilement and such cases that are of a felony cannot be resolved at ADR”
ADR Week is used to create mass public awareness to educate the citizenry on the use of ADR. Stakeholders that are Judges, court officials, and lawyers are also sensitized.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
