Her Ladyship the Chief Justice of the Republic, Justice Gertrude Eraba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo has issued directives to the registrars of the High Courts to submit cases with different legs in different courts to her office.

With her vision to reduce delay of cases in court and make the court sensitive to the timely resolution of commercial claims, Her Ladyship by the directive issued last week seeks to eliminate situations where different courts of the High Court hear different parts of a matter potentially leading to conflicting orders.

In pursuance of the above goal, clerks of the General Jurisdiction division of the High Court have been instructed to compile and segregate cases per type of dispute (eg. land, probate, commercial etc) for submission to the office of the Chief Justice. Sources also suggest to The Law Platform that land litigation within a particular geographical area may now be rounded up and all heard by a particular judge for a well streamlined handling of land cases.

Reaction to directive

Owing to this directive from the Chief Justice, some judges are reluctant to hear proceedings where another leg of the matter is before another Justice of the High Court.

For example, in the morning of 14th of November, 2023 the respected Justice Alexander Osei Tutu was hesitant to hear an interlocutory injuction application which relied on orders from the same High Court differently constituted. This was the case of Samuel Adofo v Trustees of Christ Apostolic Church & Anor. Counsel for the Plaintiff/Applicant was thus compelled to seek an adjournment following a suggestion to the bar by Justice Osei Tutu on the directive by the Chief Justice to registries of the high court.

In his speech suggestive of an endorsement of the move by the Chief Justice, the learned Justice Osei Tutu of the Land Division of the High Court said, "We want to end a system where lawyers file multiple suits on the same matter in different courts and prosecute which ever they find convenient for them"

New Division of the High Court

Our sources also suggest to The Law Platform that the Chief Justice who is famed for her strong background as a judge in commercial matters mulls the creation of a division of the High Court dedicated to debt recovery or matters connected to same. We continue to follow developments in this regard.

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