Judges who believe junior lawyers should spend time watching their seniors will be biased- Prof Asare
The advice from Chief Justice Kwesi Anin -Yeboah calling on his colleagues on the bench to hear cases of senior lawyers first has not gone down well with United States-based Ghanaian Professor Kwaku Asare.
He opined that any judge that tends to believe junior lawyers and their clients should spend time watching their senior lawyers is likely to be biased.
Justice Anin Yeboah issued a circular on Monday, April 11 2022 telling his colleague Judges that young lawyers need to learn from their senior colleagues.
To that end, the Chief Justice said “I would request all Trial Court Judges to strictly adhere to this age-old tradition and resort to inviting applications from Seniors first.
“The Legal Profession, as we know, is steeped in traditions and ceremonies. One of the traditions observed is the practice of calling cases of persons whose names are on the roll of Lawyers, in order of seniority of enrolment, notwithstanding the notion of equality at the Bar.
“This practice, among other benefits, affords the young Lawyer the opportunity to learn from Seniors to whom they would not ordinarily be exposed; thus, enriching the whole legal training experience beyond what is taught in Chambers and other places of work.
“It has recently been drawn to my attention, that some Trial Court Judges are not observing this practice in court.
“Whilst the right to call a case out of turn is not absolute and is exercisable subject to the convenience of the court, for the reasons mentioned above, I would request all Trial Court Judges to strictly adhere to this age-old tradition and resort to inviting applications from Seniors first. I hope I can count on your cooperation,” the circular said.
But reacting to this directive in a Facebook post, Prof Asare who is also a senior private legal practitioner said “Justice is meaningless if it becomes a respecter of senior lawyers. Judges swear to truly and faithfully perform the functions of their office without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and MUST not favour senior lawyers, thereby showing ill-will to junior lawyers.
“The judge who believes that junior lawyers and their clients should spend their time watching senior lawyers is likely to be biased, even if unconsciously, by that belief.
