Justice Akuffo vetting: Lawyers advertising on social media ‘distasteful’

Chief Justice nominee Justice Sophia Akuffo has described as “distasteful”, the practice where lawyers advertise their services on social media.

According to her, touting is frowned upon in the practice and considered an unethical conduct.

Her comments come on the back of the three-year ban slapped on human rights lawyer Fancis-Xavier Sosu by the General Legal Council (GLC) for what it described as violation of advertisement rules and for charging excessive legal fees.

Mr Sosu was accused of advertising on Facebook.

Sharing her opinion on the matter when she appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, Justice Akuffo said: “If you want my view on advertising on social media, personally, I’m a 67-year-old woman, I’ve been at the bar since 1973/74 and I believe that dignity of the bar is important as dignity of the judiciary. And the idea of lawyers touting themselves on social media is personally distasteful to me, but that aside, the law is clearly against touting because it is considered an improper conduct on the part of the lawyer. Every profession has its rules.”

Instead of advertising on social media, Justice Akuffo suggested “you can have a website and put yourself on your website”.

Meanwhile, Mr Sosu has appealed his ban. He is also seeking a declaration that the charge of touting and personal advertisement levelled against him by the General Legal Council is discriminatory and contrary to Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution and praying the court to quash his three-year ban.

Justice Akuffo: Deserving magistrates will be promoted

Chief Justice nominee Sophia Akuffo assured that she will review processes regarding promotion of magistrates and judges at the country’s lower courts.

“Regarding promotion, it has to be reviewed and I will make sure that those processes are brought into play to ensure that no one has been overlooked and no one will be overlooked and it will be based on performance…”

According to her, there was a need for infrastructural upgrade of some of the working environment of some lower court judges as well as improvement in remuneration.

“Not only [promotion of] the lower court judges but also the conditions in which they work in terms of infrastructure and so on,” she said, adding: “There will be a need to do a quick review of the current situation and then make proposals for moving forward within the terms of the general applicable rules in terms of remuneration.”

Sophia Akuffo holds a Masters in Law (LLM) degree from Harvard University in the United States.

She has been a member of the Governing Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and the Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force.

In January 2006, she was elected one of the first judges of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. Initially elected for two years, she was subsequently re-elected until 2014 and is at present serving as Vice-President of the Court.

She has written The Application of Information & Communication Technology in the Judicial Process – the Ghanaian Experience, a presentation to the African Judicial Network Ghana (2002). If confirmed by parliament, Justice Sophia Akuffo will be the fifth Chief Justice under the fourth republic after Isaac Kobina Abban who served between 1995 and 2001.

Edward Kwame Wiredu also served between 2001 and 2003 while George Kingsley Acquah was head of the judiciary from 2003 to 2007 before Georgina Theodora Wood was made CJ from 2007 to 2017.

If approved, Justice Akuffo will be the 13th Chief Justice of the history of the Republic of Ghana.

I’m passionate about my integrity – Akuffo 

Justice Akuffo indicated that she was very much concerned about her integrity.

In addition to her integrity, she said she is also passionate about the development and stability of Ghana.

If passed by the Appointments Committee after her vetting, she will replace Justice Theodora Georgina Wood who has retired.

“I am passionate about integrity, I am passionate about the development and stability of our country. I was young enough but old enough to see the ushering in of Ghana from Gold Coast. I started school in Gold Coast and I finished school in Ghana…

“I am extremely passionate about everything to do with Ghana, and I am extremely proud of the strides we have made under the current constitution. It has its legal issues and problems but we have managed to work with it and hopefully the part that needs amendments will one day be amended and we will move on to the next level.

“The other thing I will like to say is that I believe that even if in our endeavours, whether in the work place or in our personal lives, we cannot hit total perfection, we can strive to reach it, so, in terms of my attitude to work, I have always believed that one must always ask the question: ‘Is this as good as it gets or can it get better?’ And if it can get better, how is that to be done?”

She added: “Because of some of my past employment experiences, I have also come to believe in systems, in having proper protocols, proper procedures, spelt out operations systems, so that whether some individual is there or not what needs to be done gets done because all the wisdom is not on somebody’s head and if somebody suddenly leaves an employment life must go on as though the person is still around.”

Justice Akuffo: School of Law shouldn’t be scrapped

Justice Akuffo kicked against suggestions that the Ghana School of Law should be scrapped.

“I am not one of those who subscribe to the Ghana School of Law being scrapped,” she told parliament’s Appointments Committee on Friday, June 16, during her vetting.

Many law luminaries have suggested in the past that the Ghana Law School should be abolished.

Prof Kwame Frimpong, the founding Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), has suggested that it be scrapped.

“The Ghana Law School cannot sustain the current system, under the country’s legal education. We should let the faculties do it,” he said when the UPSA opened its new law faculty in Accra.

“If this happens, then there is no need for someone to come all the way from Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region to come to Accra just to attend a law school before he can be called a lawyer.”

Senior lawyer and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Kwame Gyan, also holds the view that the school has underserved its purpose of providing young lawyers the requisite skills to become fully fledged lawyers. According to him, the Ghana School of Law has been saddled with needless bureaucracies – an ongoing development which is documented to have stalled academic progress and public confidence in the institution.

However, Justice Akuffo expressed a different view. For her, the faculties of law at the universities only educate students academically on theories and knowledge of law while the Ghana School of Law is a professional training facility that offers practical training.

She underscored that the school trains students for example on “how to draw up a charge and you are taught how to marshal the evidence to support that charge”, among others.

For her, the Ghana Law School is the most appropriate for training and preparing individuals who wish to join the bar.

Mob justice is injustice: Akuffo

Chief Justice nominee Sophia Akuffo described mob justice as injustice.

Answering questions at her vetting Justice Akuffo said: “Mob justice is a misnomer and it’s definitely not justice and it’s got nothing to do with the work we do.”

The most recent spate of mob justice included the lynching of army officer Major Maxwell Adam Mahama by residents of Denkyira-Boase who mistook him for an armed robber after spotting a pistol on him.

Also, a 67-year-old woman was lynched in the Northern Region on suspicion of being a witch, while in Kumasi a man was lynched for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.

In the view of Justice Akuffo, quality delivery of justice can help mitigate the phenomenon.

“… I was talking about effectiveness being a component of quality justice and many times, mob justice – I’m not justifying it – but mob justice, because it’s based on misunderstanding of processes, it could be because you didn’t understand why the person was freed or there’s a perception that what’s the point of reporting to the police, what’s the point of going to court about this matter, what’s the point of waiting for the judicial outcome because it will take too long and we won’t even understand what is going on and then people resort to self-help," the Supreme Court justice stated.

“Now when there is a lot of self-help – now mob justice is not only people beating people up – mob justice is land guards, that’s part of mob justice because it’s self-help and wherever you see self-help, it means that certain things have failed, and if it is within the civil realm, it has to do with maybe some delays in case management and so on and so forth so quality justice helps to speed up efficiently because although there is the saying that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, there is also the flip side to it which is ‘justice hurried is justice buried’, and it is being able to strike that balance. And so that is one of the areas of concern for the judicial system and for the judiciary because so long as there is mob justice, to borrow your term, it means something is not going right, and, at least, we of the judiciary will do our optimal to ensure that we are not the cause of the mob justice.”

Contempt of court law not to gag anyone – Akuffo

The law on contempt of court is meant to protect the sanctity and integrity of the judiciary but not meant to prevent anybody from talking, Chief Justice nominee Sophia Akuffo has said.

According to her, there was the need to safeguard the sanctity of the judiciary because it is the backbone of every stable democracy, as any attempt to undermine the integrity of the judiciary will not bode well for the country.

Ms Akuffo said: “Contempt of court is not intended to gag anybody. Contempt of court, its focus is on the protection of the sanctity and integrity of the judicial process. It is intended to protect the process itself, not even the individuals who were offended.

“It is to protect the institution because, excuse me Honourable Legislators, at the end of the day it is when the justice system breaks down that is when a nation breaks down.

“There are countries without a legislature [but] they manage; there are countries with dubious executive structures [but] they manage so long as there is something they can call the judiciary. If there is no judiciary then we are back in the jungle.”

When asked by Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, to explain why the Supreme Court punished Network Broadcasting Limited in addition to the Montie Three – Salifu Maase (Mugabe), Godwin Ako Gunn, and Alistair Nelson – who were found guilty of contempt of the Supreme Court in August 2016, Ms Akuffo stated: “To start off with, I am not comfortable about being called upon to justify a judgment that we have delivered, but in general terms concerning the scope of exercising the contempt power or labelling something to be contemptuous, I believe that each case will dictate the outcome.”

Ms Akuffo was nominated as Chief Justice of Ghana by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Akufo in May. If passed by the Appointments Committee after her vetting, she will replace Justice Theodora Georgina Wood who has retired.

I'll continue 'Justice for All' programme – Akuffo

Justice Sophia Akuffo described the Justice for All Programme as a “best practice” which she will continue if confirmed as Ghana’s next Chief Justice.

“I think the Justice for All Programme, that is the prison court, is a best practice and it’s a method that is being and has been used in many parts of the continent over the years. Not only is it decongesting the prisons but also actually bringing justice to their doors. Therefore, definitely, it’s a quality method and if I’m confirmed, I will continue it,” she said when she appeared before parliament’s Appointments Committee on Friday, 16 June 2017.

The Justice for All Programme is a special in-prison court sitting for remand prisoners and prisoners whose trials are unreasonably delayed. It is aimed at decongesting the prisons.

The programme introduced in 2007 has led to a reduction in remand prisoner numbers in the country.

The Justice for All Programme was introduced by former Attorney General Joe Ghartey, who after discovering the inhumane living conditions in the country’s prisons after a tour of some correctional facilities, designed the programme to address the challenges of remand prisoners.

Montie 3 weren’t denied justice – Akuffo

Justice Akuffo during the vetting also rejected claims that the Montie 3 were treated unfairly by the panel of judges which sentenced them to four months in prison.

“Normally, when natural justice has been denied, then there is denial of justice, but there was no denial of natural justice,” she said during her vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, June 16.

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn, and Salifu Maase aka Mugabe were jailed by the Supreme Court panel chaired by Justice Sophia Akuffo at that time for threatening to kill judges as well as scandalising and bringing the name of the bench into disrepute.

They had made the threatening comments against the Chief Justice and some members of the bench in connection with a ruling by the same court ordering the Electoral Commission to submit a list of voters which registered with NHIS cards.

During her vetting, Bodi MP Sampson Ahi said: “Our judges became the prosecutors and became judges in the same matter and at the end of the day handed down convictions to them [Montie 3]…”

He therefore requested for “codified rules as to who can do what when it comes to contempt so that the rule of natural justice is not breached”.

Explaining the matter, Justice Akuffo said the judiciary relies on the office of the Attorney General to prosecute in that type of contempt but “you will recall in the case you mentioned that that did not happen weeks after the contempt had been committed, so it was an exceptional circumstance but fully backed by the law that governs contempt”.

She continued that in “natural justice, invariably, that person is given the opportunity to purge their contempt but in the case of the Montie 3 we did not give them that opportunity but they did get the opportunity to put up a case if they wanted to”, adding: “They were represented by a whole bevvy of high-powered lawyers and they in the end decided to plead guilty. When a person pleads guilty, you proceed to sentence. So it is [a] normal process and [they] were not denied justice at all...”

With additional files from Classfmonline.com