Proposed ADR Reforms in New South Wales
Published by Chris Whitelaw on August 11, 2009 in ADR Reforms | 1 CommentYou may have caught the news a couple of months ago that the NSW government launched a discussion paper that proposing some reforms to how it managed the ADR system in that State. The discussion paper proposed amongst other things that lawyers be bound by statute to advise their clients about ADR and the establishment of an ADR directorate. It said that the growth of the non-adversarial system, including ADR, was lacking strategic coordination and ADR services were being distributed on an “ad hoc” and piecemeal basis. It also said “There is currently no comprehensive and clear picture available of the full range of ADR suppliers.”
These proposals follow ADR reforms being considered in Victoria after a report by the Victorian Law Reform Commission was released in May 2008. The Commission recommended that more disputes be resolved before trial. Victoria is currently leading the way with such reforms and a much higher percentage of disputes are being submitted to ADR and often at a very early stage.
The NSW government, in its discussion paper, is encouraging collaborative law be applied to civil dispute cases and that a single Sydney International Arbitration Centre be established. It wants to enact some guiding principles for civil disputes and it is looking at enacting laws that will allow adverse cost orders to be made where these guiding principles are not adhered to by parties to a dispute.
What are your thoughts on this? We now have the National Mediator Accreditation System in place since 2009. What further reforms are needed?
Your comments and insights would be much appreciated.
Christopher Whitelaw
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Robert Lopich :
Date: August 13, 2009 @ 1:26 am
More on ADR Reforms in NSW
In his blog of August 11, 2009 Chris wrote about the reforms proposed by the New South Wales state government looking at the use of ADR (including the use of the collaborative process) in non-family law disputes.
Both the previous and current Australian governments have implemented significant reforms in the area of family dispute resolution and the use of ADR.
On March 26 this year, the Australian Attorney-General, The Honourable Robert McClelland spoke at the opening ceremony of the “Collaborating DownUnder” Conference (the first international collaborative law conference to be held in the southern hemisphere) at Parliament House, Sydney.
The following day, the New South Wales Attorney-General, The Honourable John Hatzistergos opened the Conference.
Both the Federal and the State Attorneys-General spoke enthusiastically about their government’s vision for and desire to see the use of ADR and the collaborative process in particular, in dispute resolution other than just in the area of family law. John Hatzistergos has made clear the State government’s intention to see collaborative law used in the resolution of a range of disputes outside of family law including family provisions claims and commercial dispute resolution.
In April 2009 the State Attorney released the “ADR Blueprint” Discussion Paper and following that appointed a taskforce comprising academics, ADR organisations and others to work on the development of a framework for the delivery of ADR services in New South Wales. The use of the collaborative process has been included as part of the ADR services being looked at.
On the international stage, the move to the use of ADR in commercial dispute resolution has been underway for some time. Kathy Bryan, who will be a guest speaker at this year’s International Academy of Collaborative Professionals conference in Minnesota in October made some interesting observations about the use of collaborative law in commercial dispute resolution in her recent paper “Why Should Businesses Hire Settlement Counsel” which can be found at:-
http://www.cpradr/Portals/O/BryanInnovativelawyeringsymposiumarticle.pdf
Robert Lopich
Collaborative Lawyer/Nationally Accredited Mediator
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
Email: Robert@lopichlawyers.com.au