This is to apprise the readers about what is mediation and why somebody should opt for mediation to resolve his/her dispute.
Basically Pakistan is a common law country. Common law is judge-made law which was developed in UK on the basis of customs of a particular locality consequently, Pakistan previously being a British Colony, adopted the legal system of England. In common law country adversarial system prevails.
Adversarial system is that in which, when a dispute arises between two parties, they appear before court in person or through advocates and present their case. In this system of litigation, parties are opponents. Title of case shows "Versus" between the names of two litigants. Upon decision of a case by court of law, one party wins the case and the other loses.
Adversarial system is that in which, when a dispute arises between two parties, they appear before court in person or through advocates and present their case. In this system of litigation, parties are opponents. Title of case shows "Versus" between the names of two litigants. Upon decision of a case by court of law, one party wins the case and the other loses.
Obviously the decision is of a judge as per his own reasoning and according to law. Law has prescribed a particular procedure for proceedings in a case. With the passage of time, legal procedure has developed with technicalities and long time is required in conclusion of the trial. Resultantly, a huge number of cases are pending in a courts. Litigation takes a lot of time and money and the result is not controlled by the parties.
As compared to above legal process, there are ADR (Alternate Dispute Resolution) Processes and techniques, which include negotiation, good offices, conciliation, mediation and arbitration.
Mediation is an alternate flexible process of resolution of dispute between two parties, by themselves under the facilitation of a neutral third party who assists the parties to reach a settlement. In this mode of resolution, a neutral third person called a mediator does not give a decision, rather guides the parties to reach a workable solution to their problem. It is a voluntary process and no one can be forced to enter into mediation regime without his consent. Mediation has following benefits among others:
- Mediation saves time as it does not involve technical legal procedures and matters taking years in courts are resolved in a day or two.
- Litigation costs a lot. Mediation has very low cost involved. As far as lawyers are concerned, they do not get affected in terms of their professional fee as they charge fee in advance and can facilitate their clients in resolution of dispute in a day, which was previously resolved in a long time.
- Result of mediation is friendly. It is not in favor of one party and against the other rather it creates a win-win position and satisfies both the parties.
- Compliance is guaranteed because the result is chosen by the parties themselves.
- Parties have control over the process. There is no hard and fast rule. Mediation is a flexible process.
- Saves and determines future relationship of parties. It does not leave the parties to run in appeals and higher forums to spend money and waste time.
- There is confidentiality in mediation process. Neither the parties, nor the mediator is liable to disclose information revealed during mediation process. Mediator can not be called in the dock to testify in this regard.
- There is always a help/facilitation by a mediator who is a neutral person who supports the parties to reach a settlement. Mediator helps to find out workable solution to the problem.
ADR/Mediation Centers established all over Punjab are facilitating the litigant public whose cases are pending in courts and who want the resolution of their dispute through Mediation. For this purpose, in every district of Punjab, one ADR/Mediation Center has been established from 1st June, 2017 in which one Civil Judge/Judicial Magistrate being accredited mediator is performing functions as such after training and accreditation by Punjab Judicial Academy and Pakistan Mediators Association.
Views of parties after successful mediation at ADR Center Sargodha can be seen on the following links:
Yasir Hafeez Awan
Accredited Mediator
ADR Center, Sargodha.
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