Latest News
Requirements that court-connected mediation programs need to meet for its establishment
Courts all over the world are in the hunt of findings ways to provide justice and solve disputes other than just litigation. They are encouraging ways of alternate disputes resolution which are cost-effective and have a faster outcome than the ones that results from trials. The direct involvement of the parties has helped to resolve issues with compliance and agreement along with a greater level of satisfaction than the traditional adjudication procedure. Alternate ways to resolve a dispute, like the court-connected mediation programs are a fit to solve cases of minor criminal cases, domestic disputes and civil cases. For the past few years, the trend of alternate dispute resolution has proliferated since it saves time as well as money.
The more the court-connected mediation comes into play the more challenges are faced by the judicial system, since with time and growth court-connected mediation program is turning out to have a wide variety of implementations. There are only a few methods that can meet with the requirements. The problem of putting up just the basic ideas, efforts and implementations is that it won’t just be a waste resource and time with only marginal success, but it would also create confusion and dissatisfaction on the part of the public at large who could get justice through such programs.
India should really encourage court-connected mediation programs of high quality. The justice system should implement more effectiveness and professionalism to meet the requirements of court-connected mediation programs in rural areas. Access to court-connected mediations should be provided as widely as possible. No parties should be discriminated into representation and vary in-court methods and innovative ways should be promoted to meet the needs of the parties.
Court-connected mediation programs should broaden the range of the dispute varieties, let parties involve themselves into solving the disputes more, provide with more mechanisms that could deal with the real issues in a dispute, help parties develop a wider range of outcome than that are already available in the adjudication system, figure out ways that can help parties come into agreements and many more.
Programs which are connected to the courts should reports and information on a regular basis so that the court stay updated about the service and the performances of the mediators.
Sadly, the availability of resources in the justice system is limited. There should be present all types of dispute resolution options but the limited resources and absence of time for monitoring the programs holds back the services that are required to meet the needs of the functioning of all types of cases.
It is important that courts make available the mediation procedure to disputants to avoid the litigation procedure. The whole idea of the alternate dispute resolution is to prevent litigation take the burden off the courts. Courts should promote the availability of the court-connected mediation once before a case is filed and even after a judgment has been made on a case in the court. This way, people would get to know more about the mediation process and there will gradually raise more cases to be resolved under mediation.
Programs should also keep in mind that mediators should not be skilled and know techniques but should also be oriented to the court procedure. It should be made necessary for the mediators to know about the traditional adjudication process including how the cases where handled in the court before mediation came into being. They should also be informed about all the changes made in the court procedures on a regular basis. This will certainly ensure a smooth running of the court-connected mediation programs.
- Encourage
- Monitor
- Skill
