Vacation courts can conduct trials during legal vacation – Deputy Attorney-General to GBA

The President of the Honourable Ghana Bar Association (GBA) – in a letter to the Chief Justice dated August 10, 2026 – makes two claims. The first claim is that a vacation Judge does not take proceedings on the substance of the case or conduct trials during the legal vacation. More particularly, the President said: “This notwithstanding, the Judiciary, with the consent of other stakeholders have by convention over the years, agreed to certain courts being designated as Vacation Courts to handle any emergencies arising during the vacation, usually interlocutory matters and never trials.” The President’s second claim is that the decision, if any, to take proceedings on the substance of the case during the legal vacation lies with the lawyers in the case (and not the bench).

More particularly, the President stated as follows: “However, the overriding consideration in any matter brought before a Vacation Judge has always been the willingness/availability of Counsel to appear before the Court in any matter slated for conduct during the vacation. In other words, Counsel are not under any compulsion whatsoever to appear before a Vacation Court.” None of the two claims is support by law, rules, practice, or optimal reason. However, not before I give a brief background to the conversation: Nature of Court Proceedings A court case entails two types of proceedings.

They are (1) proceedings on the substantive matter, and (2) proceedings on interlocutory matters. Proceedings on the substantive matter entail proceedings that are capable of finally determining the case. It often includes trials and hearings on the merits of cases.

Interlocutory proceedings, on the other hand, involve motions and summons which do not determine the matter finally. The tradition of law practice (as well as the dictate of the civil procedure rules) is that the superior courts scale down significantly on work in the months of August and September. This is known as the “summer vacations” or “the long legal vacation”.

In some jurisdictions, it is informally called “Judges’ vacation”. It is never called “lawyers’ vacation” anywhere in the world. The key point here, however, is that the courts scale down on work significantly – they do not shut down.

To continue operating partially, some judges – a few of them – are allowed to work over the vacation period. Legal vacation does not prevent courts from hearing substantive cases or conducting trials, and the decision on whether proceedings should continue rests with the bench rather than lawyers, Deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Dr Justice Srem-Sai has argued. His comments come amid a disagreement over the scope of court proceedings during Ghana’s legal vacation, which runs from August 1 to September 30.