Legal practitioner Samson Lardy Anyenini has urged lawyers to engage judges respectfully when they are unable to appear in court during the legal vacation, saying such discussions can often resolve scheduling difficulties without creating unnecessary confrontation.
His comments come amid concerns raised by lawyer for former National Signals Bureau Director-General Kwabena Adu-Boahen, Samuel Atta Akyea, over the decision to proceed with the case during the legal vacation.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Mr Anyenini said even when a judge decides to hear a case during the vacation, lawyers can explain their circumstances and appeal for an alternative arrangement.
He said judges are generally willing to listen when lawyers make such requests respectfully.
“Even if a judge wants to hear a case during vacation, we appeal to the judge in a nice way as to why we may not be available,” he said.
According to him, it would be unusual for a judge to insist on proceeding to the extent that an accused person without legal representation is compelled to cross-examine a prosecution witness personally.
“Hardly will you hear a judge resist, and an accused person asked to cross-examine a witness him or herself,” he noted.
Mr Anyenini, however, acknowledged that judges, like everyone else, are human and may sometimes make mistakes or act in ways that require criticism.
“The judges are human, and indeed some of them are not good,” he said.
He stressed that the judiciary, like every other human institution, cannot be expected to be completely free of wrongdoing.
“But it is not the case that every single person in the system is clean. It is a human institution, so you will find one or two bad nuts,” he said.
Mr Anyenini said where a judge is found to have acted improperly, lawyers and other stakeholders should not shy away from speaking up.
“And when they are doing something wrong, we need to say it,” he added.
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