ADR effective in strengthening justice delivery – Supreme Court Justice nominee

Supreme Court nominee Justice Sophia Rosetta Bernasko Essah says Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is crucial to Ghana’s justice system because it addresses the challenges and complexities of litigation in the country.

She explained that promoting ADR in Ghana has become more vital because of the challenges in resolving disputes.

The nominee noted that the legal community is increasingly recognizing the need to integrate ADR into judicial processes to advance law and order more efficiently.

Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday, August 13, she said that even though litigation has its peculiar advantages, there was an urgent need to decongest the courts, while enhancing justice for the citizenry.

“Honorable chair, we also, in my view, need to step up Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) as a form of resolving conflict disputes between parties. It is very effective and it is less expensive. It’s done in an informal environment, and it’s generally a win-win situation. Many political and sometimes lawyers are not eager to address their grievances or have grievances redress through alternative dispute resolution, but that is what we need to do as the judiciary to encourage the adoption of alternative dispute resolution as a means of resolving disputes,” Justice Sophia Essah opined.

She emphasized the importance of fully digitizing the entire judicial system to minimize face-to-face interactions between parties and members of the judiciary, indicating that this would help streamline the justice delivery process.

“Some work has been done, and there’s still more work, but it’s expensive, honourable chair. I would also say that as much as possible, we set up many more. Many have been set up by the Chief Justices in the recent past, but we do need more to reduce incidents of delays in adjudication.”

Regarding the involvement of chiefs in resolving disputes through ADR, she stated: “Judicial authority lies with the judiciary, and unless changes are made, it remains so. However, I do believe that having traditional leaders and chiefs play a greater role in settling disputes at the community level would be very beneficial. It would help resolve issues more effectively and reduce the burden on our courts.”