The common mode
of dispute resolution is going to court, over the year’s contractual
relationship, family disputes, marital issues to mention a few are being
settled by the court.
In this part of
the world once issues are resolved in court, parties to the suit remain enemies
for life as often said ’You don’t o to court and still be friends’ forgetting
that court system is not there to spoil relationships but to define boundaries,
and make each party liable in case of breach.
The attitude of
people towards resolving issues in court for the fear of losing their business partner,
severe family ties in cases of family disputes, another means was then
introduced to resolve issues. This method is known as Alternative Dispute
Resolution.
This method of
dispute resolution is of two types, Alternative Dispute resolution which is
court connected and other complimentary litigation methods that assist in
getting to the quicker and acceptable dispute resolution.
The court
connected ADR include the settlement of disputes by parties in court and
settlement out of court through ADR mechanism which usually involves the use of
appointed arbitrators while the other ADR which is not court connected involves
the use of referees that is most time an independent party who is not in any
way connected with the dispute.
The court rules
and practices encourage parties to dispute to resolve matters amicably, section
24 of the high court law of Lagos state enjoins the court to promote
and encourage reconciliation among parties, also order 17 rule 17 of the Abuja
rules states that the judge with the consent of the parties, may
encourage settlement of any matter before it through other lawfully recognized
methods of dispute resolutions which are arbitration, conciliation.
This method of
dispute resolution has so many advantages which includes easy access to
justice, it saves time and cost and above all the process is less adversarial
because the litigation system in the country adversarial in nature which often
time discourages people from wanting to enforce their rights by going to court.
The parties who
resort to ADR have total control over procedure, the settlement and contents
and may at anytime back out if not comfortable with the process and resort back
to court, it is a voluntary process.
The types of
Alternative Dispute Resolution process include Negotiation, Mediation and
Arbitration.
For more
information on how the Alternative Dispute Resolution can be adopted talk to a
lawyer.
Thank you.
Oyenike
Alliyu-Adebiyi Llb(hons)Bl
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