Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has indicated that the lack of legal training for court staff in Ghana serves as a great weakness in the country’s judicial system.
She said in other jurisdictions, registrars of the court are persons with paralegal training. She cited Malawi as one of the countries with a high court judge as court registrar.
“One of the greatest weaknesses of Ghana’s judicial system is the lack of legal training for court staff. In many jurisdictions, registrars are judicial officers; indeed, if you go to a country like Malawi, the registrar is a judge, a high court judge,” she said at a media briefing in Accra on Thursday, April 4.
She added that “it had been on the table for a very long time to have persons with judicial capacity handling court.”
Justice Torkornoo emphasised that the judicial council before she assumed office as the Chief Justice, had passed the decision to have court staff receive some paralegal training.
“Before I came into office…early last year, the judicial council actually gave a direction that judges or persons with legal training should take over as registrars,” she told the press.
The Chief Justice recounted that some years ago, there used to be lawyers who worked as registrars, but a sizeable number of these lawyers moved to full-time private practice.
“Some 20 years ago, we had lawyers who were court managers and who were registrars, and many of them got attracted to private practice, and they left,” she stated.
Justice Gertrude Torkornoo therefore expressed satisfaction with the judicial council’s decision for registrars to gain some legal training, indicating her full support for the successful implementation of the directive.
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“This is a decision I was very excited about when I came into office because it was very much part of how I thought things should be done.”
“I have been in many courts within Africa, from Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, and hardly would you find persons with no legal training being registrars of the court,” she reiterated.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice further indicated that the judiciary would outline its vision on Monday, April 8.