Mediation to be Used As a Leading Strategy to Deal With Civil Disputes.
The Judiciary announced plans to enhance mediation as a leading strategy\r\nto deal with all civil disputes filed in courts in order to fight case backlog.\r\nSpeaking at the opening of a training of judicial officers in Kampala on March\r\n17, 2014, the Hon. Acting Chief Justice Hon. Justice Steven Kavuma said the\r\ninitiative would tremendously reduce case backlog as well as improve public\r\nconfidence in the Judiciary.
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He said that resolution of disputes is faster. The parties design their\r\nown solutions rather than have one impose upon them and a win-win situation is\r\ncreated. He went on to say that reconciliation, a cardinal principle in the\r\nConstitutional dispute resolution process, is achieved. He also said mediation\r\noffers quick and easy resolution of disputes where compliance to such solutions\r\nis likely to go on without further proceedings.
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Mediation is a process that allows parties to\r\ndesign solutions to the dispute between them with the assistance of a third\r\nparty who is neutral and makes no decision except to assist the parties arrive\r\nat their solution.
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The Judiciary established the Centre for Arbitration and Dispute\r\nResolution leading to the implementation of mediation on pilot basis by the\r\nCommercial Court where 33 per cent of the referred cases were successfully mediated.
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According to the Annual Report of Commercial Court Division, mediation\r\nregistration in 2013 had an overall work load of 623 constituting 468 filed\r\ncases in the same year and 155 cases brought forward from 2012.
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Hon. Justice David Wangutusi, the Head of High Court Commercial Division\r\ndescribed mediation process as a time saving initiative which allows judicial\r\nofficers time to handle cases which are ordinarily not agreeable to mediation.
Posted 18th, March 2014
