Office of investigative commissioner in the offing — Chief Justice
The Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, has announced that the Judicial Council is setting up an office of an investigative commissioner to proactively investigate and process cases of ethical abuse by legal practitioners.
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In apparent reference to the current allegations of corruption against some members of the Judiciary, she said the Judicial Council was determined that “no dishonourable member of the (legal) profession will enjoy immunity or impunity.”
Speaking at the enrolment of 219 lawyers in Accra Friday, Justice Wood expressed worry that many legal practitioners had become unbridled businessmen and women whose only desires were to maximise profit and amass wealth at the expense of professional and ethical behaviour.
She, therefore, warned those who thought of making money quickly to rethink their motives.
“Our investigative efforts and motivations are at all time high, and we will not tire in our desire to fish out the errant among us and deal with them appropriately under the law.
“In all these, internal discipline and expulsion is but just one of the means we are determined to apply. The long arm of civil and criminal justice will not be spared. We are committed to this because law and justice are the foundation of a stable, peaceful and prosperous society,” she stressed.
Introspection
The Tiger Eye PI, a private investigative firm, recently released a documentary video of some judges allegedly taking bribes and this has become a subject of internal investigations.
In reference to that expose’, the Chief Justice said the lawyers were graduating at a time in the country’s history when more than ever before, the perception of the public about the legal profession was largely negative.
She said allegations of bribery and corruption in the Judiciary and the legal professional in general were at an all-time high, while confidence was possibly at an all-time low.
Justice Wood said the recent scandal that hit the Judiciary had brought into sharp focus, the need for legal practitioners to be introspective.
“This sober reflection will help us to identify where we have fallen short, stagnated or even retrogressed and fashion appropriate remedial measures that will diminish, if not totally extinguish, the possibility of a future recurrence,” she said.
Collective effort
The Chief Justice said the legal profession was a noble profession bequeathed to legal practitioners by their forebears who toiled to nurture the reputation that made them an enviable lot.
Therefore, she said, it must be clear to everybody that both the Judicial Council and the General Legal Council “will not preside over the decay”.
However, Justice Wood said the burden of sanitising the Judiciary could not be the exclusive responsibility of the Chief Justice but required political will and the collective effort of the institution itself, all key actors and the public from whom justice emanated.
Justice Wood urged the new lawyers to commit themselves to building a culture of indignation against corruption and nurture a strong sense of justice.
She cautioned the fresh lawyers intent on engaging in unprofessional behaviour that the “long arm of the council awaits you.”
Ms Grace Esi Sackey was awarded for the best performance. She also collected four other awards in Criminal Procedure; Company Law; Family Law and Practice, and Law of Taxation.
Lawyers
Some of the new lawyers the Daily Graphic spoke to said the recent debate on the integrity of legal practitioners posed a challenge to them to uphold integrity and eschew corruption in their practice.
Two of them, Baba Jamal Mohammed, who is a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and Prince Alfred Oppong Boakye, said they would support the vulnerable and make integrity and discipline their watchwords.