A Supreme Court nominee, Justice Sophia Essah has reiterated the need for the country to digitise its justice delivery system.

According to her, although there are reforms to ensure fair and impartial justice, digitisation is crucial to prevent any unfair judgement in the process.

“We do need a lot of reforms—some are already underway. Given the issues which arise as a result of the lack of digitisation, it will be important that as much as possible, we digitise the whole judicial justice delivery system in all aspects to reduce the face-to-face between litigants, parties and members of the judiciary and the judicial service,” she stated.

Her remarks were made during her appearance before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting for the Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 13.

Justice Essah also noted that while there are many courts, more should be established to reduce delays in adjudication.

“Honourable chair, we also in my view need to step up alternative dispute resolution as a form of resolving conflicts and disputes between parties,” she added.

The Supreme Court nominee emphasised the need for increased transparency in justice delivery.

She said that because the law is in English, many people who are not familiar with English or legal terminology feel excluded from the judicial process.

“I would suggest that we do a lot of sensitisation about what we do and how we go about adjudicating and delivering justice so that it will be transparent to as many people as possible. It can be done in the local languages or sign languages,” Justice Essah recommended.