The old order changeth and giveth way to the new: WhatsApp debuts as a means of substituted service in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The free mobile phone messaging application WhatsApp has recently made a successful debut into Ghana's legal order. With the leave of the High Court, it was used to effect smooth and uneventful substituted service on an elusive defendant. This note draws attention to the immense potential that such technologies hold for improving procedural efficiency in Ghana and other Commonwealth countries which, like Ghana, have a formal justice system fraught with resource challenges. Given the increasing participation of the Ghanaian populace in the technological age, WhatsApp's adoption as a tool of the legal process is an extremely useful and welcome development; a harbinger of cheaper, faster, more widely accessible justice.

Notes

1 Writ no AC 198/2015.

2 High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2004 (CI 47), Order 7 rule 2.

3 For a half-page advertisement in ‘Ghanaian Times’.

4 For a page in ‘Daily Graphic’.

5 Rates are based on Forex bureau conversion rates in March 2015.

6 Ghana Statistical Service, ‘National Accounts Statistics, Provisional Gross Domestic Product’ (2013) 3 <http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/GDP/provisional_gdp_2013.pdf> accessed 21 September 2015.

7 Ministry of Education, ‘Meeting the Challenges of Education in the Twenty-First Century’ (2002) <http://www.moe.gov.gh/assets/media/docs/Challenges1-Educational%20Reforms(Jophus).pdf> accessed 21 September 2015.

8 Patricia Akweongo, Maxwell A Dalaba, Mary H Hayden, Timothy Awine, Gertrude N Nyaaba, Dominic Anaseba, Abraham Hodgson, Abdulai A Forgor and Rajul Pandya, ‘The Economic Burden of Meningitis to Households in Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana’ (2013) 8 PLOS ONE < http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0079880#s2> accessed 23 September 2015.

9 Godwin Arku ‘Housing Policy Changes in Ghana in the 1990s Policy Review’ (2009) 24 Housing Studies 261.

10 Ernest Agyemang ‘The Bus Rapid Transit System In The Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: Looking Back To Look Forward’ (2015) 69 Norwegian Journal of Geography 28.

11 National Communications Authority, ‘Mobile Voice Subscription Figures for December, 2014’ <www.nca.org.gh/73/34/News.html?item=419> accessed 18 July 2015.

12 National Communications Authority, ‘Mobile Data Subscription Figures for December 2014’ <www.nca.org.gh/73/34/News.html?item=418> accessed 19 July 2015.

13 The recent campaign to sell their smartphones by Telco Tigo under the caption ‘Drop that Yam’ where ‘yam’ refers to feature phones, has been so successful that ‘yam’ has come to mean ‘unwieldy, obsolete and embarrassing’ in Ghanaian slang.

14 Ghana Statistical Service, ‘Population Projection 2010–2014’ <www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/National%20Population%20Projection_2010%20to%202014.pdf > accessed 19 July 2015.

15 The CEO of WhatsApp is said to have commented that Ghanaians are using the messenger in ways he never envisioned. See CitiFM online, ‘WhatsApp CEO commends Ghanaians’ <www.citifmonline.com/2014/03/04/whatsapp-ceo-commends-ghanaians/#sthash.RJnUddy3.dpbs> accessed 19 July 2015.

16 Masahudu Kunateh, ‘Ghana: Parliament now on Whatsapp’ <allafrica.com/stories/201504151086.html> accessed 19 July 2015.

17 Affidavit of Service was duly filed on 27 May 2015. The defendants have filed a defence and the case is proceeding normally.

18 Jeremy Waldron, ‘The Rule of Law and the Importance of Procedure’ in James Fleming (ed), Getting to the Rule of Law (New York University Press 2011) 21.

19 Kenya, Gambia, Botswana and the Seychelles have all had Ghanaian Chief Justices. Numerous others have served as High Court and Court of Appeals judges in these and many other jurisdictions.

20 International Crisis Group ‘Liberia: Resurrecting The Justice System’ (6 April 2015) <http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/africa/west-africa/liberia/Liberia%20Resurrecting%20the%20Justice%20System.pdf> accessed 19 July 2015.

21 In the region of US$ 455 in 2013. See, The World Bank, ‘GDP Per Capita’ <http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD> accessed 19 July 2015.

22 Michael L Best, Thomas N Smyth, John Etherton and Edem Wornyo ‘Uses of Mobile Phones in Post-Conflict Liberia’ (2010) 6 Information Technologies & International Development 91 <http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/viewFile/522/230> accessed 23 September 2015.

23 Afrifa v Class-Peters [1975] 1 Ghana Law Report 359, 366, per Francois JA in the Court of Appeal.