Overburdened courts impeding justice delivery, says Chief Justice
Speaking at the annual Bar Conference at KNUST, Chief Justice Torkonoo revealed that many courts are grappling with overwhelming numbers of cases
Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo has said severe caseload pressures faced by the country’s courts is impeding justice delivery.
Speaking at the annual Bar Conference at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Justice Torkonoo revealed that many courts are grappling with overwhelming numbers of cases.
“From the current 450 trial courts in operation, we see that 43 have a caseload exceeding 300 cases each,” Justice Akuffo noted. “Twenty-five of these courts are handling more than 500 cases, with 10 courts burdened by more than 800 cases. Some courts are dealing with over 1,000 cases, managed by a single judge. This is clearly not sustainable.”
The Chief Justice stressed that the situation is causing significant strain on judges and impacting the efficiency of the judicial process. Despite the urgent need for new courtrooms, the judicial management is focusing on optimizing the use of existing resources.
“Rather than immediately building new courtrooms, we are rationalising the use of our current facilities. This involves deploying more judges to high caseload areas and increasing the use of virtual courts”.
“We have also introduced afternoon and Saturday courts to better manage the caseloads. Our goal is to reduce the burden on individual courts and judges, and to enhance the overall efficiency of the judicial process,” she said.
Reporting By Jonathan Ofori, Asaase Newsroom, Kumasi
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