Private bailiffs system extended notionwide

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday November 26, 2007
Following the outstanding performance of private bailiff service companies in a pilot project, the Judicial Service has concluded that privatisation of court bailiffs should cover the whole country.

The service introduced the Court Process Service Scheme (CPSS) for private bailiffs in 2004, on a pilot basis, but has now turned it into a permanent programme, mandating private bailiffs to serve processes from all courts nationwide on litigants.

When the late Chief Justice, George Kingsley Acquah, introduced the project in 2004, only seven companies were given licences to serve processes from some selected superior courts. These included the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and some High Courts.

However, following their outstanding performance, the service has renewed their licences and also placed advertisements for more companies to join.

The seven licensed companies include: Johnson Complex Company Limited, which handles the Fast Track High Courts in Accra and Kumasi; A-Men International Limited is in charge of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and all the un-automated High Courts in Accra.

City Toll Limited is in charge of commercial courts and the Ho High Court, while Vakab Company Limited serves the Tema high courts, Equinos Limited is for Koforidua High Courts.

The rest are Ghana Post, which is handling the Cape Coast High Courts and Kahaz Services Enterprise is in charge of the High Courts in Sekondi/Takoradi.

As a result, court bailiffs will no longer be employed by the judicial service.

At a review meeting with the companys’ representatives in the Commercial Court building in Accra at the weekend, Justice Samuel Marful-Sau, chairman of the private bailiff certification board, however gave assurance that bailiffs, who are already in the service, will not be dismissed.

He said some will be re-assigned other duties in the service while others will carry out bailiff duties such as serving processes on government institutions.

He said the privatisation of the duties of court bailiffs was backed by the new High Court Civil Procedure Rules C.I.47 of 2004 which formed part of the effort to ensure efficiency and effective administration of justice.

Between July 2006 and June 2007 alone, private bailiffs were able to serve a total of 44,221 out of 49,393 processes from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and some automated High Courts on litigants, representing 89.53 per cent.

He added that the companies could not serve all processes because some of the writs did not have detailed addresses.

Justice Marful-Sau, who is also with the Court of Appeal, said “the privatisation of the scheme has ensured efficiency in the way court processes are served on litigants and it is helping the courts to dispose of cases because such processes are time bound”.

Justice Sophia Akuffo, a Supreme Court judge, who has oversight responsibility of the scheme cautioned the private companies not to abuse the opportunity given them saying “the service will not hesitate to withdraw your licence if you are found to be impeding justice delivery”.

She urged them to minimise contacts with litigants in the course of effecting services, saying “do it expediently with integrity and honesty because the competence of the courts in justice delivery depends on the service you will render”.

Justice Akuffo said one problem that the judiciary and the entire nation needed to tackle was the issue of landguards adding “it is a demonstration of people taking the law into their own hands but it must not be allowed to stay”.

Mr. Prosper Adeti, Director of Finance of the Judicial Service, said the introduction of private bailiffs had made it simple and easy for the service to collate data on the number of processes served on litigants since the companies file their returns.

During open discussions, the companies expressed concern about the attitude of some staff of the service who they accused of not placing on case dockets, the processes they served on litigants.