Mr Alex Nartey, National Coordinator of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) of the Judicial Service, on Monday launched this year's Legal Year ADR week at Takoradi.
The week, which would be celebrated from June 7 -11, is under the theme "Court Connected ADR: Access to justice made simple for all".
Launching the week, Mr Nartey said ADR was formally institutionalized as part of the country's justice delivery system in August 2005 and a week was set aside during each Legal Year to intensify the use of ADR in all District
Courts nationwide by giving parties, who have cases pending in the courts the opportunity to have those cases settled through mediation.
He said mediators were assigned to each court to help the parties to resolve cases that have been referred to ADR by Magistrates and Judges.
Mr Nartey said the week was also used to create public awareness and to educate the citizenry on the use of ADR and also to sensitize stakeholders like Judges, Magistrates, Court Officials and Lawyers.
He said during the week, Registrar Summons Exercise is carried out as a major intervention to identify inactive cases that were pending in the courts.
Mr Nartey said during the exercise, Registrars of the Courts apply on notice to parties for the striking out of those cases that have been idle for 12 months without any sign of interest by the parties to pursue them.
He said available statistics for 2009 at the National ADR Directorate indicated that a total of 5,358 cases were referred for mediation within
magistrate Courts nationwide out of which 3,871 cases were successfully settled, representing a settlement rate of 71 per cent.
Mr Nartey said the ADR programme of the Judicial Service has been expanded beyond Accra to all the 10 Regions of the country.
He said a new Judicial Culture of resolving dispute has emerged and Ghana's efforts at attracting foreign investors would receive a boost if ADR took firmer roots and was effectively incorporated into the justice delivery system.
Mr Nartey said litigation in the courts have become unattractive to international business entities and the nation needed to develop ADR
mechanism like Commercial Arbitration, Negotiation, Mediation and Conciliation to make the country attractive to international investments.
He said the court connected ADR is, therefore, preparing the Judiciary to embrace the new international judicial culture of resolving disputes other than through litigation.
Mr Nartey said the objectives of the Court Connected ADR were to promote the rule of law and good governance; to reduce time and cost of resolving dispute; ensure effective speedy and efficient delivery of justice; instil public confidence in the justice delivery system; to assist parties to resolve disputes without much acrimony and to preserve relationship and to help reduce backlog of cases pending in the courts.
He said the Court Connected ADR has proved to be very effective and guaranteed the interest of disputants and all settlements or agreements
reached at the end of the mediation process wee adopted by the court as consent judgement which became enforceable.
Mr Nartey said the major challenge faced by the Court Connected ADR was lack of adequate funding and currently mediators were not well remunerated.
He said for this reason, the Judicial Service had to limit the number of cases that Mediators would want to handle because there was no adequate resources to pay for additional work, adding the Court Connected ADR was largely funded by donor partners.