Supreme Court pushes mediation to unclog court dockets

Would King Solomon have prescribed this cure for a Philippine legal system choked by severe case backlog?

The Supreme Court has addressed the problem of the judiciary’s nationwide epidemic of case overloads by encouraging litigants to avail of amicable settlements — a system of mediation that is much quicker and less costly than litigation.

Calling amicable settlements the "win-win" solution to the adversarial nature of modern lawsuits in the Philippine setting, the high tribunal declared Sept. 16 to Nov. 16 "Settlement Month," a period during which the Court of Appeals will be holding qualified cases for parties who will agree to mediation.

Judiciary officials said this mode of resolving legal conflict is cost-efficient and will significantly reduce the interminable wait — measured in years or decades — for a court decision to be finalized through the regional trial courts and metropolitan trial courts to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

The move was spearheaded by the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), the SC’s education arm, and is assisted by the Philippine Mediation Foundation Inc. The program was pilot-tested in courts in 2001 and a Philippine Mediation Center was established.

Court sources said some 85 percent of cases referred for mediation have been a success. PHILJA has recruited, trained and appointed mediators from among the ranks of retired judges, top-caliber attorneys and senior law professors nationwide.

The CA pre-selected 120 cases in Metro Manila and Regions 2 and 4. Parties involved in 50 of these cases "responded favorably." Since the amicable settlement program began, some 75 percent of the cases subjected to mediation were resolved peacefully.

Only cases involving civil, labor and special civil action may be referred for mediation, however. Cases involving jail terms as penalty and custody battles are not covered by mediation.

Other types of lawsuits not covered by mediation are cases with pending applications for restraining orders and preliminary injunctions – unless both parties allow or seek mediation.

The court-appointed mediators will function as neutral third-party facilitators who will help in the resolve legal disputes by systemazing and directing the conflicting parties’ discussions with the view of settling these issues once and for all.