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GAZETTE
APRIL 1986
spent on mediation and, as a corrollary, whether
mediation should be discontinued or not.
The Service will have a distinct advantage for
solicitors. By early referral of a case to the Service, a
solicitor might save an enormous amount of time,
personal stress and effort. At the moment a solicitor is
expected to be a confessor, a psychiatrist, a
psychologist, a healer and resolver as well as an
interpreter of law and an administrator of the legal
system. All these quasi-messianic functions, save the
legal function, will be part of the mediators' skills or
attributes. All the research and comparative studies,
(the most scientific of which are Canadian) show that a
mediation service:
(a) can help avoid unnecessary litigation;
(b) Can better prepare the parties to understand the
issues to be resolved; and
(c) can reduce the parties' emotional turmoil.
The sources of referral expected by the Mediation
Service will be:
(i)
self referral;
(ii) the Legal Aid Board;
(iii) solicitors in private practice;
(iv) other professionals, counselling agencies and
social service agencies.
The work of the Service will be evaluated
continuously
by
independent
researches,
and
monitoring conclusions will be submitted to the Depart-
ment of Justice at the end of the pilot three year period.
It is likely that the Service will become a statutory one
after that time.
The service will be up and going by the end of June
1986 for the benefit of the public and profession. It will
be well advertised at that time. Solicitors, particularly,
are asked to recommend and support it.
•
* James F. O'Higgins is Chairman of (he Steering Committee and
Pilot Scheme for Family Mediation.
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