Experts in the legal profession have canvassed mediation as a veritable instrument for resolving business disputes, insisting it is a viable alternative to litigation with all its cost implications.
Mediation, they explain, has become a common feature of the dispute resolution landscape whose use is increasing in number and is driven by the desire to keep parties involved in a dispute out of court wherever possible.
As an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism, mediation also encourages and empowers disputants to resolve problems in a way that suits them and, according to Andrew Goodman, a professor of Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution Studies, Rushmore University, USA, mediation should be done “without necessarily reflecting the outcome that a court would determine.”
Goodman, who spoke on the topic, ‘Mediation: The Modern Alternative For Business Dispute Resolution’ at a mediation conference organised by Oakwell Partners in Lagos recently, posited that mediation simply offered a better way to dispute resolution, pointing that every mediation was an opportunity to find recourse to a business or commercial solution that focused on future or ongoing relationships, rather than fracturing existing ones.
“Mediation is a voluntary, non-binding and private dispute resolution process in which a trained neutral person helps the parties to reach a negotiated settlement which then becomes binding upon them, usually when reduced to writing and signed,” Goodman said further.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Osarieme Ezekiel, the managing partner of Oakwell Partners, had said that the one-day conference, which had legal icons and top government officials in attendance, was in tune with the enormous job Lagos State government was doing in its justice reform.
Oakwell, according to her, recognises the usefulness of mediation as an instrument for dispute resolution, noting that dispute in business linger because parties to the dispute refuse to come together and talk. “We believe in mediation and negotiation; this conference is aimed to encourage the use of mediation because of its immense benefits, which include its use as an advocacy tool,” she said.
Austin Alegeh, the national president of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), agreed, advising that all should embrace mediation as a tool for dispute resolution because, as he explained, “it is good for business” in spite of inherent challenges bordering on cost, time, etc.
He commended Oakwell for the “commendable initiative,” pointing out that mediation had its root in the country’s judicial system as could be gleaned from the resolution of family disputes, property transaction or ownership disputes, among others, which usually involved a neutral third party.
Funlola Odunlanmi, solicitor general and permanent secretary, Ministry of Justice, Lagos State, who represented the governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode, noted that mediation was much more cost-effective than litigation, adding that “it is generally an ego-based problem.”
Odunlanmi disclosed that the state government had opened a Citizens Relations Centre meant for dispute resolution between indigent disputants, pointing out that the centre had been a huge success with 22,000 cases already resolved out of 37,000 cases received in 2015 alone.
