Ghana's Judiciary Undergoes Reforms

The Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Georgina Wood, yesterday said Ghana's judicial service is undergoing reforms to enable it to handle cases expeditiously.
    
She said, the move is also to remove the backlog of cases at the courts and bring parties together.
    
The Chief Justice said this when her visiting Kenyan counterpart, Mr. Justice Johnson Evan Gicheru, accompanied by an Appeals Court Judge of that country, Mr. Justice Alnasir Visram, called on her in Accra at the start of  three-day official visit to Ghana.
    
The visit is to enable the Kenyan delegation draw lessons from Ghana's judicial service concept to inform the reforms to be embarked upon by that country's judicial service. It is also to afford both parties an opportunity to share ideas on matters of common interest.
    
Mrs. Wood said, Ghana has introduced special courts notably the Commercial Court that deals with specific cases.
    
She said this helped to ensure speedy trial of cases making investors to repose confidence in the Ghanaian court system to resolve disputes among business partners adding that mechanisms are also put in place to prevent conflict of interest on the part of judges.
    
According to the Chief Justice, the courts also collect information from stakeholders through a feedback system on how they are performing, adding that this helped to inform their future endeavours.
    
Mr. Gicheru said, Ghana's judicial training concept is a model on the continent adding that Kenya will adopt practices that are relevant to her present day needs.
    
The delegation later visited the Commercial Court, Human Rights Court, Land Courts, Financial Administration Courts and the Fast Track Courts where they held discussions with administrators on how they operate.