Group sues GLC over law entrance exam ad

A suit has been filed at the Registry of the High Court, Accra, seeking to force the General Legal Council, the body charged with legal education in Ghana, to withdraw an advertisement it placed in the state-owned Daily Graphic of 4 June 2019, in which it asked prospective applicants to submit applications to it to undergo a law school entrance examination.

The suit is titled GJ1547/2019.

On 10 June 2019, the Coalition for the Reformation of Legal Education in Ghana issued a press statement asking that the advertisement issued on 4 June 2019 be withdrawn.

In that letter, the group stated: “To conclude, we are by this letter serving notice on the General Legal Council, and notice is hereby served, that if it fails to publicly withdraw the advertisement placed on page 30 of the Daily Graphic of 4 June 2019, we would initiate all legal actions allowed by the 1992 Constitution to ensure that they listen to the voice of reason.”

Copies of the letter were subsequently served on the General Legal Council and several interest groups.

“Unfortunately, we have not seen the required action, leaving us with no option to seek judicial intervention”, the coalition said in a statement.

In the suit, which is an application for Judicial Review by way of Prohibition, the Applicant is seeking three reliefs, which are the following;

(1) An order of Prohibition directed at the Respondents to withdraw the advertisement placed at page 30 of the Daily Graphic of 4 June 2019, and to make the contents of the said advertisement consistent with articles 23 and 296 (a) and (b) and the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulations, 2018 (L.I.2355).

(2) An order of Prohibition directed at the Respondents to withdraw the advertisement placed at page 30 of the Daily Graphic of 4 June 2019, and make the contents of the said advertisement consistent with articles 17 of the 1992 Constitution.

(3) An order of Prohibition to directed at the Respondents to withdraw the advertisement placed at page 30 of the Daily Graphic of 4 June 2019, and make the contents of the said advertisement consistent with article 15 of the 1992 Constitution.

“The reasons are that even though the General Legal Council has been sued in the Supreme Court on the very same matters, it has not seen it fit to file an appearance in the matter before the Supreme Court to provide a response in that suit. What it has rather done, is to proceed by doing exactly the same things that has landed it in the Supreme Court”, the group noted.