Days 7 and 8 - the Legal Aid Board

On Wednesday and Thursday I returned to the Legal Aid Board (LAB).  The mornings of both were spent mainly in the District and Juvenile Courts, which furnished a striking contrast to the Supreme Court.  The building that housed the courts was, unsurprisingly, much more modest: simply four courtrooms in a row, all opening onto a long verandah which ran the length of the building.  The waiting area was a raised platform with a roof situated outside the court building. 

I was also taken to see the police unit on site.  It was a few moments before I noticed that two men were imprisoned in a cell in the corner – for not paying maintenance, I was informed.  The cell was extremely basic, being simply a small room with a barred door opening onto the main police office, so I was relieved to hear that they would be there only temporarily.  However, when later on I asked some questions about prison standards in Ghana, I was told that in permanent prisons there would be many prisoners in a cell of the same size, with few or no more facilities.  Overcrowding is apparently a significant problem, one which stems partly from the fact that, other than fines, there are no other punitive options available to the courts: community orders, for example, do not exist.

The District Courts deal with all manner of cases – in the short time I was there, I saw cases involving questions of debt, landlord and tenant relations, intestacy, property, and family disputes.  There was much to admire in the way this diverse caseload was handled by the judge, often without the benefit of lawyers (indeed, the number of litigants representing themselves goes some way towards answering the questions raised in my previous blog post about the apparent absence of demand for legal services).  Although much of what occurred would probably constitute an “irregularity” – and a ground for appeal – in the UK, here it seemed a commonsense reaction to circumstances.  For example, at the end of one case, a rather sad dispute between sons and their father, the judge delivered what can only be described as a homily, urging the parties to get along.  It clearly came from the heart, and was quite personal - and deeply religious - in tone.  For someone accustomed to the careful formality of the UK courts, it was startling, but somehow refreshing.

What appeared to me to be the biggest problem facing these courts was absenteeism.  This was especially obvious on the Thursday morning.  In the first case I observed, it was the witness who was due for cross-examination who wasn’t there; in the third case, it was the defendant; and in the fifth case, it was the defendant’s lawyer.  This is perhaps the other side of the coin of the more relaxed approach described above.  I also wondered whether the problem was exacerbated by the fact that, in Ghana, the practice for calling witnesses is for each witness to be given a specific time to appear.  In the UK, in contrast, all witnesses are asked to come along at the beginning, and then wait their turn.  This latter approach does of course waste much time of many witnesses – but with the former approach, it is the court’s time that is wasted when the appointed witness is absent and there is nothing to do but adjourn.

On both days, I was very kindly treated to a local lunch by Abu Issah, the LAB’s lawyer.  On Wednesday we had chicken and rice at the National Theatre, and on Thursday we had kenkey, which is a sort of dumpling made of ground maize wrapped in a corn husk.  Sadly this last didn’t agree with me (to the extent that there won’t be a blog post on Day 9, as I spent most of it in the local clinic on a drip...).

The afternoon of both Wednesday and Thursday were spent at the LAB’s office.  On the Wednesday, I observed another mediation – in which, rather to my alarm, I was introduced as “co-mediator”.  I felt it was probably best to keep my co-mediating to a minimum, never having attempted it before.  On the Thursday, I sat with Abu watching him deal with a dizzying succession of clients.  As with the District Courts, he was presented with a diverse range of problems and I was impressed by the ease with which he moved between cases on land, crime, family, and the armed services. 

I very much enjoyed my time at the Legal Aid Board, and am particularly grateful to Abu for taking such trouble to show me all the different aspects of his work. 

Me with Abu Issah, the LAB lawyer.