Legal Resources Centre, Accra, Ghana

Looking back at my summer internship in Accra, I can now confidently confirm that my first experience in a Ghanaian district court in June was a prototype of the Judicial and Legal system here. Keep in mind, Ghana has been a democracy for over fifty years now and is one of the most developed countries in Africa in 2010.

In a legal aid case, my supervisor and I were representing a client who had been renting a taxi cab and paying back the owner the debt in monthly installments with his profits from collecting fees from passengers. After putting in a significant amount of time researching Ghanaian Contract law of a Conditional Sale agreement and the Hire Purchase Act, we prepared a strong argument for the defendant.

Our case was scheduled for 9 am in early June. With my New York habits still freshly ingrained, I arrived at Court at 8:45 am but was not shocked when my Supervisor arrived closer to 9:30 (by then I had been gradually assimilating to what we called GST-Ghanaian standard time. In short, we soon learned that 5 minutes meant 10, 10 minutes meant 30, 30 minutes meant 1 hour and 1 hour meant it was not happening today). Although the Judge called our case at 9, the plaintiff’s lawyer was present and requested the case be stayed until 10am to which the judge agreed.

At 10am, the case was called again. This time, however, our client was not present. When the judge inquired as to his whereabouts, my supervisor responded “my client says he is here.” The court room was small and there couldn’t have been more than 20 people in total present. After scanning the room again, everyone looked back at my supervisor and then to the judge. Naturally, the judge asked again where our client was. I couldn’t believe that again my supervisor responded that our client said he was present. Clearly he wasn’t present in this courtroom! As cell phones are not permitted in Ghanaian courts, my supervisor left the room to call him. When she returned, she had no further information and continued to repeat that the client said he was here. This conversation continued in circles for almost 5 minutes before the judge adjourned the case until July 29^th, 2010. When we left the room, my supervisor didn’t mention anything. When I asked about the situation and where our client really was, she responded that she did not know and he would contact her eventually. I couldn’t believe we put all this effort into this case and she was so complacent about contacting and finding our client, until I realized this is a common situation in Ghana. Due to judicial corruption and inefficiency, Ghanaian citizens often lose interest in settling cases through the legal system and look to other means to solve their problems or quite commonly dismiss them altogether.

This story is a good introduction to understand the basis of one of our major projects during the second half of the summer called the Judicial Vacation report. This report captured the essence of certain judicial inefficiencies and reasons for backlog and distrust in the legal and judicial system. These efficiencies often encourage citizens to solve legal issues on their own to avoid getting caught in the maladies of the Ghanaian judicial system.

Ghana has approximately a two month judicial vacation that begins in early August and ends in early October. Cases heard in the middle and end of July are often adjourned by judges until mid or late October due to the substantial vacation period and lack of necessary judicial officers on duty during the time period. Substantial delays in the administration of justice, however, create incentives to avoid the judicial system altogether or instead leads to bribery and patronage for special privileges from officers who may aid efficiency of the process.

The interns spent weekday mornings in the high courts, human rights courts and fast track courts taking copious notes about each case on that court’s docket. Our compiled information proved that many cases were unnecessarily adjourned until October or even early November, which effectively resulted in human rights abuses in many criminal cases for defendants that were detained. Inefficient or weak judiciaries result in inconsistent application of laws, arbitrary of excessively lengthy detentions, and the deterioration of individual and personal property rights.

Although there were definitely many major issues with the Ghanaian Judicial system, I did have many positive experiences with other projects at the LRC. One particular project inspired confidence and motivation in the Ghanaian legal system and international human rights law. Working with the Touch a Life Foundation and the Village of Love manager and director, I gained much exposure to client interviewing and learned a lot of about human trafficking developments and efforts to protect victims from child slavery on Lake Volta. I believe that with my interview efforts and data collected from the directors and managers, I can turn my findings into an academic paper with substantial continued researched at my University and contact with the Village of Love and LRC in the coming future months.