The Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has questioned the Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) decision to petition the Chief Justice over concerns about lawyers being required to attend court during the legal vacation.
Speaking in an interview on Joy News, Mr. Dafeamekpor argued that the GBA has no mandate to act on behalf of law firms because the association is made up of individual lawyers.
“What is the business of the GBA in this matter? The GBA has no business in this matter,” he said.
His comments follow a letter by the GBA to Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie on Monday, August 10, after some law firms reportedly complained about directives requiring lawyers to appear in court despite having indicated that they would be unavailable during the legal vacation.
Mr. Dafeamekpor said the GBA’s intervention was misplaced because law firms are separately licensed by the General Legal Council (GLC).
“GBA is an association of lawyers. They [GBA] told everybody that they got petitions from law firms, not from lawyers,” he said.
He maintained that if the complaints came from law firms, those firms should have been directed to the appropriate forum rather than having the GBA intervene on their behalf.
