More mediators added to help with backlog of court cases

This country has added 26 more persons to its list of University of the West Indies (UWI) certified court mediators, an initiative that can help with the backlog of court cases here.

Mediation is a procedure in which the parties discuss their disputes with the assistance of a trained impartial third person who assists them in reaching a settlement. It may be an informal meeting among the parties or a scheduled settlement conference that can prevent parties from going to court.

Last week, beginning from Monday May 21 and ending on Friday May 25, Ann Diaz, Coordinator of UWI’s (St Augustine Campus, Trinidad) Mediation Unit, facilitated the training at the conference room of the National Insurance Services (NIS) on Upper Bay Street.

Diaz, a certified mediator, facilitator and trainer who has conducted mediation training geared toward certification for UWI’s master’s programme, the Dispute Resolution Centre (DRC) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and territories, said the course afforded practitioners the opportunity to learn the skill set of mediation.

She said the course was 40 hours of theoretical and practical training in the art of mediation with the hope that the participants get onto the court roster to work with and alongside the judiciary to conduct mediation.

Diaz said mediation is being used more in the Caribbean and mediators were last trained here 13 years ago, hence the need to train more. She said of the mediators who were trained 13 years ago, some are on the court roster, and were invited to speak to this new cohort about their experiences.

The trainer also noted that during the opening ceremony, it was revealed that here in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), mediation has an approximate 37 per cent success rate and about 290 cases were mediated on since the introduction of the process in SVG.

“I am sold on mediation because I recognize that it is something that could really make a difference and it gives the man on the street the opportunity to make his matter heard and for him to have a say on how he thinks his matter should be resolved,” said Diaz while adding, “the outcome belongs to the parties and it is really a great process as people that use it find that they feel satisfied. They are not forced to come up with an agreement and even though there is no agreement you still find a level of satisfaction with the parties coming out of the process.”

Also present at the training was Regional Mediation Coordinator with the Supreme Court Francis Compton. He said the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has chosen mediation as the preferred system of Alternative Method of Dispute Resolution (ADR) and has mandated that judges and masters should send matters to mediation as the preferred option for dealing with disputes rather than dealing with them in the court themselves.”

He added also that the court believes that this will help clear backlog in the system and help deal with a number of matters that do not necessarily require the intervention of a judge.

Compton however noted that in his opinion, mediation in SVG does not have a higher success rate because it has not been publicized enough and many lawyers have not been sensitizing persons about the mediation option.

Senior Court Administrator in the High Court office Janeel Frederick said that the High Court sees it as important to recruit more persons into mediation. She said that Diaz was recruited by the Judicial Education Institute of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court to conduct the mediation training workshop and the persons who were trained are certified by the UWI.

She said that persons interested in trying mediation for disputes may go to the High Court office and they will be directed on how to move forward.

“We have a list at the High Court and if at any time you feel you are in dispute and you might need some advice we make it available.

“Additionally, we are having public awareness. Persons think that you have to have a matter in the court, but this is not so,” said Frederick who added that one may not have the money to pay for legal advice, so you can use mediators.

Mediators are however only available for civil matters.

The list of persons who received training last week included lawyers, educators, accountants, planning consultants, counsellors, managers and court administrators.

Frederick said they are hoping that the mediation training can take place twice per year.