Mediation as answer to court backlog
published: Monday | May 5, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
PERMIT ME the privilege of commenting on your editorial of Thursday, May 1, 2003 on the issue of High Court backlog.
Each judicial system, by its very nature, is comprised of finite resources. The number of judges, courtrooms, support staff and available work hours are fixed. The best approach to the court backlog would surely lie in the most efficient allocation of these scarce, fixed court resources. Your editorial raises questions designed to suggest the causes. What you failed to do is give adequate exposure to the proposals as set forth in the new Civil Procedure Rules.
As of January 1, 2003, the new rules provide for civil matters to benefit from Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques. Mediation provides for the Judge, with co-operation from the attorneys, invoking a process which can handle the myriad matters which clog the justice system. Mediation has been available in the Resident Magistrates courts since 1998 and is now available in the High Court. All stakeholders in the justice system should review the benefits of mediation, involve its use and reserve the court's finite resources for those matters which can only be adequately handled in the process of litigation.
Judges would benefit from more resources being made available, attorneys would benefit from the timeliness and cost-effective use of resources. Clients would benefit from a more timely opportunity for resolution of conflicts and corporate entities benefit from the efficient preservation of valued relationships currently threatened by conflict, especially those which remain unresolved for very long periods.
Mediation, coupled with Settlement Week, provides an ideal methodology for the effective and efficient use of finite judicial resources. Our citizens deserve all our co-operation in applying this approach.
