The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directorate of the Judicial Service of Ghana has revealed that 3,716,24 court cases have been resolved through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) across the Country.

Addressing the Press during the ADR Week Launch at Cape Coast in the Central Region, Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homia, Justice of the Court of Appeal and Judge in charge of ADR explained that, as at the beginning of the 2021/2022 legal year, there were 122, 072 cases pending in court across the Country.

A total of 124,443 new cases were filed in the course of that legal year bringing the total number of cases pending before the courts to 246,515, out of which 119,386 cases were resolved by the Court, representing 48.4 percent.

According to her, at the beginning of 2022/2023 legal year, there were 127,129 pending cases and this means that additional 5,057 cases were recorded as part of the backlog by the end of the 2031/2022 legal year.

She said, new cases were also filed in the 2022/2023 legal year bringing the total pending cases to 256,381,out of which 126,119 were resolved, representing 49.2 percent through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

She stated that, as at 2010, they had a settlement rate of 72 percent and along the line, the CCADR Programme encountered challenging and so the settlement rate declined.

Between 2011 and 2021, the average settlement rate was 44.9 percent. January to May 2023 recorded a settlement rate of 37 percent.

She said, recognizing and appreciating ADR as a strong pillar of Justice, the Judicial Service has taken concrete steps to address some of the major challenges which accounted for the steep decline in the settlement rate such as payment of Mediator’s allowances and sustained public sensitization to raise awareness.

She encouraged all Ghanains to depend on ADR for the betterment of court resolutions.

In addition, Justice Kofi Akto Owia, the Supervising High Court Judge in the Central Region explained that, the ADR week to settle cases under ADR will be held at 17 Courts in the Central Region.

According to him, Central Region is currently having 43 courts,12 are High Court, 6 circuit court and 24 District court.

He appealed for more Courts to be established in the Central Region as inadequate law court in Central Region sometimes make settlement of cases difficult.

He said, most of the courts lack substantive Judges to adjudicate cases hence appealed for more Personnel.

Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Yaw Boagyan