Service to help solve disputes
A service has been set up to help solve disputes, ranging from niggling to notable, between any two parties who remain in contact with each other. The Christchurch voluntary mediation service was given approval when legislation protecting its users passed through its final stages in Parliament on Tuesday evening. The service will offer a mediation process outside the conventional legal system. The Community Mediation Service (Pilot Project) Bill imposes an obligation of confidentiality on the service and anyone associated with it and ensures any statements made would not be used in court proceedings. The service could not work without this protection for the two parties involved, said the secretary of the organising committee, Miss Jane Chart, yesterday. It was hoped that a coordinator would be appointed by the end of January and the service would begin on June 1. Mediators would be drawn from a broad crosssection of the community and extensively trained by a group of people with vari-
ous skills. Miss Chart said premises would be sought in the inner city and she envisaged that a service would be offered in suburbs as needed. Mediation would be voluntary and agreements reached would not be binding, nor could they be enforced in the court's. It is a two-year pilot project and Miss Chart said sufficient funds had already been raised to pay the co-ordina-tor’s salary and for the premises, although more money would be needed for running costs.
Disputes likely to be dealt with are small problems in the home, disagreements in clubs, problems in the workplace. and complaints between neighbours. Miss Chart emphasised that the service would offer mediation, not counselling, and would not duplicate the service offered by the Small Claims Tribunal. Research revealed a need for this type of service. It would be free and the parties would have nothing to lose. There had been an excellent response from a wide range of agencies. Miss Chart was closely associated with a similar, successful service in New South Wales, and said that in its first 12 months 87 per cent of the cases that went to mediation achieved results.
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Press, 15 December 1983, Page 5
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357Service to help solve disputes Press, 15 December 1983, Page 5
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