Accra, Sept 7, GNA - The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood, on Monday said Ghana's judicial service was undergoing reforms to enable it to handle cases expeditiously.

She said the move was also to remove the backlog of cases at the courts and bring parties together.

The Chief Justice said this when her visiting Kenyan counterpart, Mr Justice Johnson Evan Gicheru, accompanied by an Appeals Court Judge of that country, Mr Justice Alnasir Visram, called on her in Accra at the start of three-day official visit to Ghana. The visit is to enable the Kenyan delegation draw lessons from Ghana's judicial service concept to inform the reforms to be embarked upon by that country's judicial service. It is also to afford both parties an opportunity to share ideas on matters of common interest.

Mrs Wood said Ghana had introduced special courts notably the Commercial Court that dealt with specific cases. She said this helped to ensure speedy trial of cases making investors to repose confidence in the Ghanaian court system to resolve disputes among business partners.

She said mechanisms were also put in place to prevent conflict of interest on the part of judges.

According to the Chief Justice, the courts also collected information from stakeholders through a feedback system on how they were performing adding that this helped to inform their future endeavours. Mr. Gicheru said Ghana's judicial training concept was a model on the continent adding that Kenya would adopt practices that were relevant to her present day needs.

The delegation later visited the Commercial Court, Human Rights Court, Land Courts, Financial Administration Courts and the Fast Track Courts where they held discussions with administrators on how they operated.