Stop wasting the time and monies of your clients – Retiring SC Judge to Lawyers

Retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sophia Ophilia Adjeibea Adinyira, has cautioned lawyers in Ghana to desist from filing multiple appeals and applications in pursuit of minor legal points at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in neglect of the substantive trials at the High Court.

Speaking at the farewell ceremony at the Supreme Court after delivering her valedictory judgement after forty two (42) years of public service as a public servant and a justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, Justice Sophia Ophilia Adjeibea Adinyira said that, “Some lawyers actually waste their clients’ time and money by chasing minor legal points up to the Supreme Court and neglecting the substantive matter pending at the trial court.”

“I will not say you also waste the Supreme Court’s time. So lawyers take a hint. The Justices I am leaving behind have not yet meddled with age on the Bench and I will not be around to restrain them from throwing out your cases willingly,” Justice Adinyira said.

In the issue of legal aid, Justice Sophia Ophilia Adjeibea Adinyira expressed regret at the fact that lawyers in Ghana are not seen offering adequate legal services to the poor and marginalized in society. She called on the legal community to step up their game in same.

Justice Sophia Ophilia Adjeibea Adinyira, today, the 30th of July, 2019, delivered her valedictory judgement in the case of the Centre for Juvenile Delinquency verses Ghana Revenue Authority and Two Others, as she bids farewell to the Bench after some thirty five years of service to Ghana.

Justice Adinyira was appointed to the Supreme Court on the 15th of March, 2006 during the presidency of John Agyekum Kufour and has served at the Apex Court of the land for thirteen (13) years. She exits the Bench as the third most senior Judge out the current number of fifteen. Among several other cases that she adjudicated, she was a member of the nine (9) member panel that heard and decided the famous “Election Petition” case of 2013. She will be remembered for her “no-nonsense” approach to the adjudication of cases particularly as a justice of the Supreme Court.

Justice Adinyira was born on 8th June, 1947. She had her legal training at the University of Ghana and the Ghana School of Law, and was called to the Ghana Bar in 1973. Her Ladyship Justice Adinyira worked at the Attorney General’s Department before being appointed to the High Court in 1989. She also served as a Judge of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal from July 2009 to June 2016, sitting in New York and Geneva. Adinyira is a member of the International Association of Women Judges and chairs the National Multi-sectoral Committee on Child Protection. She drafted a juvenile justice policy for Ghana supported by the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Unicef. She is also a member of the General Legal Counsel, the body responsible for legal education in Ghana.