The Second Term ADR Week, under the leadership of Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal with
                         oversight responsibility on ADR, is being held under the theme “Building the pillars of Justice Delivery through Commercial Justice ADR”.

                                  H/L Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal

                           The workshop saw participants taken through topics such as “Introduction to Commercial Justice ADR”, Delivering Effective Commercial
                           Justice through ADR, the Role of the Bench in Ghana” and “Overview of Practice Directions on ADR and Plea Bargaining”.

                           Her Ladyship Justice Gifty Dekyem, a Justice of the Court of Appeal emphasized that per Regulation 4 of the High Court (Civil Procedure)
                           (Amendment) Rules 2020 (C. I. 133), disputes arising from trade and commerce are considered to be commercial disputes, encouraging
                           participants to be able to identify the trade and commerce cases before the courts. The identification of commercial cases will assist all Judges
                           and Magistrates to adopt the speediest means of dealing with them as provided for by the rules.

                                  H/L Justice Gifty Dekyem, a Justice of the Court of Appeal

                          She also stressed that although the law supports and promotes  ADR, not all matters were amenable to ADR, as stipulated by Section 1 of the
                          ADR Act, 2010 (Act 798). According to the Act, matters not amenable to ADR included those involving national or public interest, the environment,
                          the enforcement and interpretation of the Constitution and any other matter that by law could not be settled by an alternative dispute resolution method.
                          She further drew the attention of participants to the fact that “the ADR resolution is as good as a judgement – it is final and binding”, whiles encouraging
                          them to sensitize court users on the finality and binding nature of the resolution in justice delivery.

                                 Her Ladyship Angelina Mensah-Homiah and Judges and Magistrates Participants

                         For her part, Her Ladyship Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah who took participants through the topic: “Overview of Practice Directions on ADR and Plea
                         Bargaining”, urged them to inform accused persons of their rights including the rights to remain silent, their right to call witnesses and examine witnesses
                         as well before plea negotiations are commenced.

                         She used the opportunity to remind participants to sensitize court users well enough on available ADR mechanisms so they could make informed decisions
                         on the option to choose.

                               A participant contributes to ongoing discussions

                       
                        She ended the workshop with a call on participating Judges and Magistrates to give attention to quick resolution of commercial cases. “Commercial matters 
                        do not have to delay in court because time is money. As Judges, we need to reorient ourselves in dealing with commercial matters and give it the attention
                        it deserves”, she said.