Attorney General is a Mediation Convert

Press Release

Thursday 7 May, 2009
For immediate release

The Attorney General is a Self Confessed Convert to Mediation!

This week, in an event organised by the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ), the Attorney General Hon. Christopher Finlayson hosted the launch of the LexisNexis text Mediation Principles, Process, Practice by Laurence Boulle, Virginia Goldblatt and Phillip Green.

In opening the Attorney General confessed, “I am a convert - to mediation, that is. “ He outlined his experience as a former litigator who in his own words wasn’t “the slightest bit interested in mediation”. The Minister described 2 cases he was involved in, one of which was prolonged and expensive and the other which settled early using mediation. At the end of the second case, he stated that “All this made me wonder what, seriously, is better for the client? Long, drawn-out litigation or a mediation at an early stage in the life of a proceeding which results in a settlement? Putting aside obviously self-interested and almost obscene considerations of targets and timesheets, the answer is obvious. Mediation is a wonderful tool for commercial parties to enable them to reach an expeditious settlement of differences. And not just commercial parties. Since mediation has developed, its worth has been shown in areas as diverse as family law and Treaty of Waitangi litigation.”

“So mediation is now an established part of the dispute resolution process and it is unthinkable to consider such a process without mediation. Currently, 45 New Zealand statutes provide for a mediated process as a primary conflict resolver. A recent pilot for mediation in the Family Court was highly successful with a high level of satisfaction on the part of parties and a 95% partial or full settlement rate.”

The Attorney General congratulated the authors “for producing such a valuable second edition” and named Founding president of AMINZ, Phillip Green as one of the founders of mediation in New Zealand. He said that the text is “a comprehensive study of mediation and includes a valuable discussion on the actual process and the law and practice of mediation. In closing the Minister noted that the book will “be an essential text in the litigator’s library.”

Ann Edge, the Vice President of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand said that “it is gratifying that the government is recognising the value of mediation in ways that encompass both the cost effectiveness of mediation as a Dispute Resolution tool, and also the ability of mediation to lessen the cost and damage to relationships.”

ends

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