Bailiffs' Job To Go Private

The Judicial Service, as part of its reform programme, will from October this year, begin privatising the service of court processes, which is currently done by bailiffs.

The Judicial Service will subcontract the service of writs, processes and other court documents to retired court officials, courier companies and groups of individuals.

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice George Kingsley Acquah, said ?this will hopefully eliminate undue delays in the service of processes, since the private people who will be contracted for this purpose will be paid only on proof of service.?

Speaking to the paper in a telephone interview yesterday, Mr. Justice Acquah said that the Judicial Service had been receiving complaints from the public about bailiffs who allegedly took bribes in exchange for deliberately failing to serve court papers.

He said that one of the major causes of delays in the adjudication of cases was the failure of bailiff?s to serve documents and other processes.

He added that the privatisation exercise would begin on a pilot basis and would cover the service of papers from Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the six Fast Track Courts in Accra and the newly created Commercial Courts.