Ghana's Superior Courts are sitting on close to 29,500 pending cases, Supreme Court Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi has disclosed, figures he delivered at a lecture at the University of Ghana School of Law as a Distinguished Alumni.

Before turning to those numbers, Justice Kulendi had set a more personal tone, describing his return to his alma mater as "a singular privilege" and a reminder that before he became a judge, he was first a student, learning that the law demands hard work, focus, integrity and intellectual honesty, values he said have remained the bedrock of his professional journey.

Justice Kulendi shared what he called his "Wa boy" story, a personal reflection on his own path from the Upper West Region, where he grew up, to a seat on Ghana's highest court, a journey that has made him the first Justice of the Supreme Court to hail from the region.

He folded his journey into his message to the students in the room: that the legal system they inherit is imperfect, as every generation's has been, but that resignation is not an option, and that hard work and integrity, learned early, can carry a lawyer a long way, a lesson underscored, if quietly, by the sheer weight of the caseload he had just described.

Presenting data from the current legal year at the University of Ghana School of Law, Justice Kulendi said the courts received 4,347 new filings between October 2025 and March 2026 and concluded 4,305 over the same period. The High Court carries the heaviest load by far, receiving 2,854 new cases and concluding 2,860, but still holding a pending caseload of 24,543 matters, more than 83 per cent of everything before the Superior Courts.

He called it "the engine room of Ghana's judicial system," adding that the High Court concluding slightly more cases than it received signals that improvements in case management and technology are beginning to reduce, rather than merely contain, the backlog.

The Court of Appeal received 1,214 appeals, the Supreme Court Justice revealed, and concluded 1,195, leaving 4,501 pending, while the Supreme Court took in 279 new matters, concluded 250, and carries 454 pending.

He described the situation as a complexity, rather than institutional failure. He noted that the 221 judges currently sitting across the Superior Courts – 142 at the High Court, 61 at the Court of Appeal and 18 at the Supreme Court – collectively shoulder responsibility for almost 30,000 pending matters, and called for more judges, better case management and continued investment in court technology.

Justice Kulendi shared the platform with fellow Supreme Court Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei as part of the School of Law's "Conversations and Cocktail" series.





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