Judicial Service complaints unit for Ashanti
The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has inaugurated the Public Relations and Complaints Unit of the Judicial Service in Kumasi to serve the Ashanti Region.
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With the establishment of the unit, lawyers, litigants and members of the general public who have problems, complaints and grievances about the administration of justice and related issues could walk to the unit in Kumasi to seek redress.
Headed by Mr George Dove, formerly of the Judgement Debt Commission, the unit will make enquiries into complaints made by the public about the administration of justice, especially unnecessary adjournments and extortion by court officers.
Chief Justice
In a speech read on her behalf by the Kumasi Supervising High Court Judge, Mr Gibson K. Adzagli, the Chief Justice said there was no point in bringing justice to the people when they had to travel to Accra to have their problems, complaints and grievances addressed.
Justice Wood said also that the unit had been opened in recognition of the fact that justice emanated from the people, some of whom perceived the justice delivery system as shrouded in mystery and was also incomprehensible, too technical, intimidating and too expensive.
She expressed the opinion that sometimes those beliefs were held out of ignorance and lack of knowledge on how the system worked.
The chief justice noted that another issue that confused the ordinary court users were the jargons, terminologies, technical terms used by lawyers and judges in court, which in most instances left the ordinary client more confused.
She said most times all that a client needed was just an explanation.
GBA
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mr Yaw Boafo, welcomed the establishment of the unit and urged the managers to work objectively to ensure that the public’s confidence in the unit was continuously strengthened.
He also urged the managers of the unit to bear in mind that judges, by the nature of their work, were not allowed to react to issues concerning either their person or professional work in the public domain, hence the need for the Public Relations and Complaints Unit to be up.