Mediation is a win-win solution – Chuck

Continuing with his push for mediation to be used more widely in settling matters before the courts, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has said the Caribbean must now start to promote mediation as the primary means of settling disputes.

“The courts are being burdened with matters which could easily be settled with mediation and that is where I think it is important for us in Jamaica, and I would say for the Caribbean, that we help attorneys, litigants, or the stakeholders to see mediation as the first route in settling matters and litigation as the final resort,” he said.

While noting that mediation could also be used effectively to reduce the courts’ backlog, the minister said a lot of the cases that are brought before the court should have been mediated instead.

“In Jamaica, although it is mandatory in the Supreme Courts, in the lower courts, that is the parish courts in Jamaica, many simple matters need not be in the courts.

“And if they do come to court, the judges should really ask the parties to get to a mediator to see if you can get to a settlement and a consent judgment and do not utilise the time of the court,” he stated.

In this regard, he said the public needs to be educated that the court is not the only option to settle a dispute.

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Chuck during his address at Wednesday’s virtually held Jamaica Mediation Strategy Lecture also stressed that alternative dispute resolution is a viable alternative option not only for the courts but also for settling disputes in communities and in commercial activities.

Pointing to the advantages of mediation, he said it is not only cost-effective but saves time.

“I believe that mediation needs more promotion, more accessibility and even more use not only in Jamaica but across the world,” the minister said.

Currently, he said the ministry is trying to put a Mediation Act in place in hope of having it on stream within the next few months.

Among the measures to beef up the mediation push is the implementation of strategies devised by stakeholders, including the justice and national security ministries, mediators, lawyers and judges, as well as the establishment of justice centres islandwide where persons can go and have access to a trained mediator. The Government, he said, is prepared to pay for the mediation cost for those who are unable to pay.

Meanwhile, Tania Chambers, legal consultant who spearheaded the research which guided the strategies, said some of the proposed actions include expanding the number of referral point for mediation for civil matters, expanding mediation at the parish court and lay magistrate level, which would see automatic referrals of some cases at those levels to mediation, referral of backlog cases to mediation and registering mediators and establish a skills database for them.

“The idea under the mediation strategy would be to streamline all of that process to increase the number of mediation coming out of the court system significantly. Related to that is also the recommendation that in the same way you can get legal aid to pay for an attorney you should be able to get some kind of subvention to pay for mediation service,” she said.

Chambers said the cost of mediation although far cheaper, the cost for litigation for some parties is an inhibitive factor and many mediators are being placed in a position where they have to offer their service for free in order for persons to have access to them. As such, there is a recommendation for some of the money that is allocated to Legal Aid Council for litigation services be made available to mediators.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com