The Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, on Monday announced the completion of the draft High Court Civil Procedure Rule 2026, which will speed up the hearing of cases.
“The Rules of Court Committee, under the Chairmanship of the Chief Justice, has recently completed its preliminary consideration of the draft High Court Civil Procedure Rule 2026,” he said.
“The draft is now ready for laying before Parliament when it resumes from recess.”
The Chief Justice made this known in a speech read on his behalf by Justice Anthony Forson Junior, a newly sworn-in Supreme Court Judge, at the opening of the 2026/2027 annual Ghana Bar Association Conference at Ada in the Greater Accra Region.
He also opened the conference on the Chief Justice’s behalf.
It was on the theme: “150 years of Ghana’s Legal Evolution: Transforming the profession and driving its future with industry.”
Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie noted that the High Court Civil Procedure Rule 2026 represented the first and major comprehensive review of the rules governing Civil Procedure since CI 47, more than two decades ago.
“It will determine how quickly a dispute moves, how parties are heard, how evidence is presented, how judicial time is used, and ultimately how a citizen obtains justice,” he said.
The Chief Justice said the justice system could not remain still while society itself moved forward, hence the need to reform.
“A Justice system cannot remain still while society itself moves forward, and so we must reform. Not because everything in the old order was wrong, but because some of the things that were sufficient yesterday may no longer be sufficient for tomorrow,” he added.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie noted that the Judiciary’s e- justice programme was underway, noting that “the digital transformation of the judiciary is not simply a matter of replacing people with computers.”
It is about changing how justice is accessed, how cases are managed, how information moves and how courts respond to a generation that increasingly expects public institutions to be accessible, efficient and transparent.”
He said there were other reforms underway across the Judiciary, noting that some of the reforms would require the work of those who came after the present leadership.
He urged all stakeholders in the justice system to conform to reality, adding: “The legal profession itself is changing.”
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie noted that Artificial Intelligence now could conduct research, analyse documents, generate drafts and perform tasks which once belonged exclusively to the young lawyer beginning his professional journey.
“The temptation, therefore, will either be to fear the machine or to worship it. We should do neither,” he said.
The Chief Justice said it was important for lawyers to understand that those who refused to evolve might soon find themselves practising a profession that had evolved with them.
“But technology must never be permitted to remove humanity from the law,” he noted.
He said the future lawyer must, therefore, be both technological and more human, more knowledgeable but discerning, efficient, ethical and more capable of navigating machines but never so dependent on them that “he forgets how to think.”
The Chief Justice said the Bar must remain more than an association of lawyers, adding: “It must remain a voice of reason when passions run high, a voice of conscience when convenience becomes tempting, and a voice for those who may have no voice at all.”
He urged the GBA to jealously guard its longstanding nature as the conscience of the legal profession and must not allow itself to be perceived as an appendage of any government in power or political party.
“Your strength lies in the fidelity to the law, constitutionalism and justice for all. When vast public statements, timing of interventions, or selective silence creates the impression of partisanship, it erodes public trust, weakens its moral authority to hold power to account, and it divides its own membership along partisan lines.”
He charged the GBA to speak with principled consistency and ensure its leadership and communities reflected the collective equals of the bar and not political preferences of the day.
“Government changes, parties change, judges retire, lawyers grow old, but the constitution must endure, and the bar must remain one of its vigilant guardians for the next 150 years,” he added.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie urged lawyers to go to the aid of the vulnerable, weak and less privileged.
He stressed the need to build courts that are not merely magnificent buildings but living institutions of justice.
