The announcement was made by Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo in her Statement at the launch of her Vision for the Judiciary and the Judicial Service called ‘LEADing Justice’, a Strategic Framework for improving the application and the use of Law, Ethics, Assets, Digitalization and Due Process in justice delivery, at the Accra International Conference Centre.
CJ welcoming the Vice President, H.E. Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia to the event
‘I am glad to report that as part of my immediate goals, which prioritizes the provision of directions, guidelines, and manuals to increase transparency and due process in court work, twelve (12) items that range from Administrative Guidelines to Practice Directions, are available to be revealed to the public today, along with the Vision Statement’.
Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo delivering her address
The Administrative Guidelines and Practice Directions cover Practice Directions on Commercial Pre-Trial Settlement under Order 58 as amended by CI 133, Practice Directions in Respect of Prerogative Writs Involving Chiefs and Chieftaincy Issues, Practice Directions on Award of Cost, Practice Directions on Plea Bargaining, Practice Directions on Adjournments and Adoption of Proceedings in Part Heard Trials and Practice Directions on Court Connected ADR under Order 32 as Amended by CI 133.
Students of the Ghana School of Law and various University Law Faculties at the programme
The rest are Practice Directions for Determination of Applications for Injunctions to restrain Burial of a Deceased Person, Administrative Directions to Aid Expeditious Disposal of Trial by Jury, Administrative Guidelines on Using the Supreme Court Registry, Administrative Guidelines on Generation of Suit Numbers, Administrative Guidelines for Procedures For Online publication of Judgments and Rulings and Administrative Guidelines on Court room Proceedings.
Clergies at the launch
According to the Chief Justice, ‘under the implementation of the goals in this Vision, Manuals and Guidelines will be multiplied for the use of stakeholders, and to cover the myriad lines of court work, levels of court, divisions of courts, the functions of external service providers etc. etc. The purpose of this is to increase transparency, competence, due process and integrity in court work’.
Chief Justice Torkornoo also disclosed that as part of the immediate (first two hundred days) goals set out in her vision statement, ‘I have been greatly assisted and helped to produce various paralegal learning materials for Accounting professionals, Process Servers, Interpreters, Court Clerks, Recorders and Secretaries, and Registrars working with the courts’.
CJ in a chat with the Vice President
She further added, that the Judicial Training Institute (JTI), working with technology and innovation teams in the Judicial Service ‘have also trained our first cohort of faculty members in how to deliver online training with effective adult learning models, because the cost of training thousands of people physically, bringing them from around the country will be simply prohibitive’. She said, going forward, much of training ‘will now be delivered online, with structured pre-delivered materials, and post training exercises, to ensure that actual learning is done, before certification is given’.
