The High Court, Presided by the brilliant Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court Judge, Justice Alexander Osei Tutu has condemned Counsel for the Plaintiff in the case of Alhaji Iddrisu Baidoo v Justice Amateifio & Ors. Suit No. BMISC 833/2010 delivered 30th day of April 2025.

The brief facts of the case is that the Plaintiff through his lawyer, G.N Ntony, averred that the Defendants had sold to him their house acquired through inheritance. The Plaintiff thus brought his action against the plaintiffs and a purchaser of the property he claims to have acquired from the Defendants.

In a display of his command of legal principles in land law and evidence, the learned and respected Justice Alexander Osei Tutu who occasionally devotes some of his time to reflect on the law in his Friday writings available at A.O.T'S Legal Corner of The Law Platform, meticulously identified discrepancies in the identification of the property by the Plaintiff, deficiency in the Acquisition of the property, failure to lead evidence on the Agreement of sale, inconsistency in the amount allegedly paid to the owners of the property amongst others leading to the avoidable collapse of the case of the Plaintiff.

Bad Lawyering

The Presiding Judge, on the back of a trial where only the Plaintiff told his story and thus, the disposal of the case turning mainly on the strength of the Plaintiff's case, had cause to comment "on the poor manner in which the suit was conducted professionally."

According to the experienced Judge whose exploits at the Bench and legal text writing attracts admiration from many a Judge and Lawyer, "It was evident that while the Plaintiff switched from the main track, his counsel equally followed the same lost map. For instance, while the Plaintiff maintained in his evidence that the three Defendants initially priced the property at Gh₵15,000 before reducing it to Gh₵12,000, out of which he paid Gh₵11,000, leaving a balance of Gh₵1,000 to be paid after the transfer of the property to him has been effected, Counsel misunderstood his own client and submitted his case differently for him."

Read the full Judgment below which offers a good source of authority for evidence at trial and professional handling of a case by a lawyer: