PARTIES INVOLVED in commercial and other disputes should look at mediation as a first option, the presiding judge of the Commercial Court urged yesterday.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly was speaking in Cork where he opened the State’s first dedicated dispute resolution centre, the Cork Resolution Centre on Sheares Street.
The new centre offered an example for other cities and groups to follow, the judge said.
He said up to 70 per cent of cases currently before him could be resolved by mediation.
Mediation generally led to much quicker dispute resolution as it could take place over a much shorter period than litigation, where parties have to wait for a hearing date.
He instanced a copyright dispute involving The Dubliners, which was admitted to the Commercial Court list on a Monday. He recommended mediation, and the dispute was resolved by the Thursday.
Other advantages of mediation included the fact that it was held in private and was also much less expensive than litigation.
Mediation also reduced the stress and strain suffered by people embarking on litigation, particularly in family law matters.
“The beauty of the mediated settlement is that it’s an agreed settlement – the parties have been able to come to their own solution and they are then able to live with that [whereas] a solution provided by a judge or an arbitrator is a forced solution,” he said.
The judge said there was also a public benefit of mediation. He estimated that 60-70 per cent of cases coming before the Commercial Court could be resolved through mediation, which would help free up the courts.
“In this country we have the lowest number of judges per head of population in the world. There is no country with fewer judges than Ireland, and the court system is constantly under pressure, so there is a great saving in public cost and public time if more cases are mediated.
“But really, the costs that are saved are nothing compared to the relationships that are saved – in the family law area people are spared going through a process that grinds them down and engenders even greater bitterness than was there at the outset.”
Lawyers should make their clients aware of mediation and urge them to at least try it as a first option. While there would always be a necessity for litigation, as there would always be cases where points of law had to be decided, litigation should really only be a last resort.
Solicitor Patricia Mallon of the Cork Resolution Centre said the alternative dispute resolution offered by the centre avoided the adversarial and often hostile court environment and allowed parties time and space to work with their advisers to reach a solution.
“There are many disputes that can only proceed through the courts . . . however, there are many that do not require recourse to the courts but end up almost by default simply because the parties are not aware that viable efficient dispute resolution options exist,” she said.