Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a legal phenomenon is, increasingly, gaining traction among members of the bar and bench, individuals, institutions and sundry disputants as it is gradually but steadily being realised that litigation is not only a legal albatross, but also a major constraint to economic growth and destroyer of business relationships.
It was against this backdrop that experts who gathered for the 4th edition of Oakwell Partners annual Mediation Conference in Lagos recently advocated mediation for quick, timely and peaceful resolution of disputes among parties.
Besides quick, timely and peaceful resolution of disputes through which frayed nerves are calmed and business relationships are salvaged, mediation, according to the experts, is an economic growth enabler.
In his keynote speech at the conference with the theme, ‘Mediation: Adding Value, Improving Deals’, Abubakar Danlami Sule, MD/CEO, Keystone Banks Limited, highlighted the pitfalls of litigation as a court process.
According to him, that traditional problem-solving method tends to be binary because of its adversarial nature, adding that courts are generally limited to money remedies and, on rare occasions, to specific remedies such as interdict (court order).
“What is more worrisome about litigation is not the conflict, but the destructive nature of the process reflected in lost opportunities to businesses, and destruction of business relationships,” he added, pointing out that though there are other techniques of settling disputes including negotiation, conciliation and good offices, mediation is known to be preferred as it allows parties to have control over the agreement to be reached.
“Mediation has been recognized as an economical, faster, and more amicable alternative to either arbitration or litigation in resolving disputes; its use has appeared to receive little resistance owing to its onfidentiality and opportunity to salvage business relationships,” Sule posited.
Other benefits of mediation, according to him, include clarity of the third party’s neutral role; flexibility in procedures, effective communications among others.
Alex Okoh, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) agrees, sharing their experiences at the courts over the privatization and commercialization of public assets many of which, he disclosed, were under litigation in various courts in the country.
“Legal issues constraints economic growth; assets that are tied down by legal issues could be freed through mediation, leading to growth in the economy,” Okoh noted, pointing out that litigations and arbitration have posed serious challenges to government’s privatization objectives.
“Defending legal action is a source of distraction ; it causes distraction to realizing the objectives of privatization, ” he added, citing the Eleme Petrochemical Plant as a clear case of privatized public asset embedded in legal issues and therefore defeating the objective of the privatization—economic growth.
Andrew Goodman, a mediator in UK for 25 years and a visiting lecturer at Dubai University Real Estate who was the guest speaker at the conference, also highlighted the benefits of mediation, stressing that the best approach to disputes was not to go to court at all.
He described mediation as an open justice system which enjoys confidentiality that most businesses want. “This is a voluntary process that does not commit the disputants to any particular outcome and ensures that people don’t even know about the dispute”, he said.
Oakwell Partners managing partner, Osarieme Ezekiel, had, in her opening remarks, noted that mediation was the way to go, contending that businesses did not have any business in court.
She urged parties to disputes to embrace mediation in order to save time and money, and also avoid the destructive nature of litigation. “It is good that disputes are settled in a way that business relationships are not destroyed,” she counseled.
CHUKA UROKO
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