“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser — in fees, and expenses, and waste of time.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
What is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)?
ADR is an alternative to court room litigation through the use of various identified techniques such as negotiation, conciliation, mediation and dispute adjudication boards (to name but a few) in the resolution of disputes. Arbitration is considered as private dispute resolution in which parties appoint arbitrators and choose their own rules as opposed to the court system, where court procedures are frequently little understood by parties, leaving the fate of disputants entirely in the hands of their lawyers and the judges appointed by the courts to hear their case. In Ghana, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act 2010 (Act 798) endorses and promotes the use of ADR in Ghana. This is a very salient and welcome piece of legislation, as it recognises other forms of dispute resolution in line with global trends. A few examples of such trends are identified below:
The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Alternative Dispute Resolution Section states as its mission that the Section “recognizes the critical importance of negotiation, collaboration, mediation, neutral evaluation, arbitration and new and hybrid forms of dispute resolution in all areas of legal practice. The Section is a forum for improving these processes and the understanding of dispute resolution alternatives, for enhancing the proficiency of practitioners and neutrals and increasing the knowledge and availability of party-selected solutions.”
The Object of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIARB) headquartered in the U.K. with branches spanning globally is provided as “to promote and facilitate worldwide the determination of disputes by arbitration and alternative means of private dispute resolution other than resolution by the court (collectively called “private dispute resolution”).”
BQLC will leverage on ADR techniques to provide clients with an efficient service that has amongst its advantages a speedier, less formal and less costly form of dispute resolution.