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06.12.2011 General News

ADR Reduces Cases In Court

By Emmanuel Bonney - Daily Graphic
ADR Reduces Cases In Court
06.12.2011 LISTEN

Six thousand, seven hundred and sixty-two out of 9,952 cases referred from the courts for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) between 2007 and 2010 have been resolved amicably.

They include land related matters, debt recovery, child maintenance, petty crime, family related and matrimonial cases.

The ADR aims at reducing the backlog of cases at the courts, as well as enhancing access to justice to the poor and vulnerable in the communities.

It is a method of resolving disputes other than through the normal trial or court process.

Under the ADR process, a court is connected to a trained mediator, who meets the parties involved in a dispute to assist them to find a mutually acceptable solution to the problem between them.

Where the parties are able to reach a compromise, they reduce the terms reached by themselves into writing and submit them back to the court for adoption as consent judgement.

Where the parties are unable to reach a compromise, the matter goes back to the court for trial. In this way, the traditional system of adjudication and the ADR system work collaboratively.

Addressing a press conference to launch this year’s week-long celebration of access to justice through the participation of citizens through the adoption and application of ADR to matters before the court, a High Court judge, Mr Justice Atto Mills-Graves, called on

Ghanaians to embrace the ADR concept, which was fastest, cheapest and least stressful for parties and the courts.

“The informal approach used in ADR makes access to justice faster, cheaper and takes away the need for a lawyer in the lower courts such as magistrate courts. It also repairs strained relationship,” he said.

Development in ADR, he said, had been influenced by reaction against litigation and demand for additional processes which were quicker, cheaper and otherwise more appropriate.

He said the practice of ADR in the resolution of disputes had been given a boost by modern-day thinking which proposed dispute management processes which were participatory, responsive and concerned with preserving relationships among those involved.

Mr Mills-Graves, who is also the Deputy Director of the ADR Programme, said the ADR was an additional dispute resolution mechanism which weaved its way into the web of available options for redress and, therefore, ran and operated alongside the existing known system of adjudication in the country.

Delays in the courts, he said, caused problems in both civil and criminal matters, in spite of time limits which were intended for expeditious trial of cases, adding that costs and delays were just two of the factors which persuaded the majority of those in dispute to effect a compromise and settle their differences without trial.

“It is in the light of these costs and delays that I suggest that judges and lawyers alike should do well to promote settlements or compromises between parties. Concerned over the increasing number of cases, both criminal and civil, in our courts, the Judicial Service of Ghana is encouraging the legal fraternity in the court, as well as litigants in particular, to opt for the application of ADR,” he added.

The National Co-ordinator of the ADR Programme, Mr Alex Nartey, said from 2005 to date, the programme had been funded by donors, including the UNDP, DANIDA and MiDA, adding that the government’s subvention was not enough.

He said there was the need for the government to provide more funding to make the initiative vibrant and effective.

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