1. Appeal Cour of Ljubljana
Positive effects of Court Annexed Mediation from viewpoint of Judges and Clients
Mag. Gordana Ristin
Appeal Court Judge
Head of ADR Division
Appeal Cour of Ljubljana
Budapest, December 4 th, 2017 1

2. What do I do? Active judge at the Court of Appeals
2. Head of the ADR department
Mediator
Trainer for mediators and other trainers
Psychotherapist by the transaction analysis method
How does this combination work? 2

3. Conflict
2 persons engage in a conflict when their relevant wishes (interests) exclude each other
Who owns the conflict in litigation?
Prof. Nils Christie: Who owns the conflict – Conflict as property
What is the current situation in the developed world and EU? Why do directives force us to mediate?

4. The parties think that the judges:
do not listen and do not find people important;
work slowly;
want to resolve files in as easy and fast way as possible;
are not fair and do not strive to find a fair solution;
do not solve the life’s issue;
use professional legal language, incomprehensible to lay people;
are not sympathetic and do not feel empathy;
react in a way unfitted for real life;
act superior and inaccessible.

5. The judges think that the parties:
have unrealistic expectations;
are not objective;
are not self-critical, stubborn and want to enforce their will;
do not understand laws and do not follow them;
do not listen to and do not respect judges;
are too emotional;
do not understand that judges are limited by procedural laws;
do not know what they want and force into lawsuits even to their own loss;
do not understand that we are dealing with too many cases and backlogs.

6. Sociologic aspects  the challenge:
→ historical moment: 1st century of the 3rd millennium: “the Postmodernism”
numerous rights
doubt in the authorities
change in the value system: tolerance as a new value
greater general knowledge of psychology
time of co-operation and not confrontation
new states (Southern & Eastern Europe, etc.)
Doubt/distrust/ 
the challenge:
How to consider all this but not at the cost of the rule of law?

7. Why this gap between the law profession and the people?
People expect a solution to their life’s problem.
GAP
Judges can decide about the legal claim.
Stealing conflict from the people? OR
A civilisation misunderstanding?

8. Positive effects of mediation from viewpoint of Judges
Why do people file lawsuits: to resolve a legal problem or to resolve a real-life problem?
What do they expect from the judge?
What can we give them?
How many times did you detect that the dispute is not about the law but parties previous disputes (hereditary dispute – 2 brothers).
Mediations resolve disputes and reduce court backlog
Judge can resolve disputes where an agreement is not possible
Legal profession is changing 8

9. Court backlogs

10. This is an ideal judge!

11. Positive effects of mediation from point of view of parties
Parties can finally speak about relations, wishes, about what is important to them
Dispute is resolved in a few meetings
Procedure is informal, confidential and voluntary
Parties may co-create the procedure
Supervise and contribute to the dynamic of the proceedings
If mediation fails, parties may still litigate
Possibility of improving relationships 11

12. Statistics about court annexed mediation in Slovenia
A 17 year (ongoing) pilot project
ZMCGZ – 2008
ZARSS – 2009
Highest number of settlements in all courts in the year 2012: 2054
From 2009 till end of 2016: over
In 30% parties before the court of first instance accept mediation offer and settle in 50% of the cases; in appeal proceedings parties accept mediation in 10% and success rate is 50% 12

13. TO CONCLUDE Life is changing and so do we
Parties must be explained what litigating really means
Explanation about mediation
Same as a doctors duty to explain treatment to the patient (to facilitate the decision), so must the judge explain options to parties in dispute.
Mediation is not possible in all disputes
Not all people are competent to mediate
Court is still considered to be the paramount of dispute resolution 13

14. Thank you for your attention
Gordana Ristin,