Must a Defendant Enter Appearance before Bringing an Application Under Order 11 Rule 18? Once a writ of summons with its accompanying statement of claim is served on a Defendant, the next step is for the Defendant to enter an appearance to the suit either by himself or through an appointed lawyer. The Defendant, after...
Tag: High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules
Navigating the Maze of Striking Out Pleadings – A Hands-On Approach to Invoking the High Court’s Jurisdiction (1)
Introduction Disputes and in effect litigation, are aspects of life that have been in existence since the days of old. The earliest form of a dispute is seen in the Bible in Genesis Chapter 13 versus 5-8 where a dispute arose between Abram and Lot over who should occupy the land which they found themselves...
Can a Law Firm Sign a Legal Process? – Extra Perspective
On 7 may 2017, the Ghana Law Hub published an article under the heading, “Can a law firm sign a legal process?”In that article, Y. Edinam Cofie discussed a High Court decision in which Justice Bright Mensah came to the conclusion that a “person” as referred to in the Legal Professions Act (Act 32) referred...
Of Roots and Branches: The Curious Case of Order 81
Introduction “If your knowledge of substantive law is brilliant and you have no knowledge of the rules of Court then you cannot be a “proper” lawyer.” These were the words of Justice Anin Yeboah of the Supreme Court of Ghana when I first met him sometime in 2009. In his estimation, and like those of...
The Intra-Regional Jurisdiction of the High Court
Background I want to set the tone of this paper with this hypothetical situation. The Plaintiff is a limited liability company with its registered address and place of business in Tema in the Greater Accra Region. The Defendant is also a limited liability company with its registered address and place of business in Tema in...
Why entry of Conditional Appearance (without more) will not do!
The High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004 (C.I 47) require a person against whom a writ of summons has been issued to file a notice of appearance in person or through a lawyer within 8 days. The appearance may be conditional or unconditional. Some lawyers are however in the habit of entering conditional appearance anytime...