While every effort is made to resolve accounts amicably, sometimes a firmer approach is needed. Here’s what you need to know about the legal process in Ghana.
If your debtor is not responsive to a collections demand letter, there are several avenues for pursuing your claim through the legal system in Ghana:
Once a judgment is obtained, it can be enforced through a Writ of Execution in two ways:
Ghana’s legal system allows for settling disputes out of Court in the Alternate Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (ACT 789). Under Ghanian law, arbitration, mediation and customary arbitration are all valid methods of settling issues.
Arbitration is most used for settling large, muli-national commercial debts, though it is increasingly used in the banking industry, as Ghana recently started a clean-up of the sector resulting in the revocation of many banking licenses.
Arbitration can offer greater speed, informality and privacy at a lower cost than litigation. However, there is still a need to involve the court for enforcement of arbitral awards.
Having a professional Ghanian legal collections agency on your side can help speed resolution of your claim(s) and reduce legal costs. By starting legal proceedings, Cedar Financial’s debt collection lawyers are often able to open a discussion with uncooperative debtors, enabling us to enter arbitration or agree on a settlement to avoid additional costs.
Foreign judgments can only be enforced for certain countries with reciprocity, as specified by the President of Ghana under the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459). These countries include: Brazil, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Senegal, Spain, United Arab Emirates, UK, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The final judgment must be of the superior courts and have a sum of money payable under the judgment. If there is no reciprocity agreement, a fresh action must be taken.
