Dispute-resolution organisation welcomes government review

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dispute-resolution organisation welcomes government review

Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 4.00 pm
Press Release: Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute of New Zealand

The Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ) has welcomed the release of the public consultation paper reviewing the Family Court.

The Family Court is the country’s second-busiest court, dealing with families and children at highly stressful times of their lives, in cases affecting 58,000 families and involving 66,976 applications.

AMINZ, the country’s largest dispute-resolution organisation, whose membership includes a significant number of family mediators, has long advocated a greater emphasis on families settling their own disputes out of court with the support of appropriately qualified mediators.

“The international trend for emphasising mediation as the best way to resolve family dispute has been very clear for some time now—with the obvious and immediate benefit being a sometimes dramatic reduction in the number of separating parents having to go to Court,” AMINZ Executive Director Deborah Hart said.

“The report notes, rightly, that agreements that have been the result of mediation are as good as—and in some cases more effective than—those reached through the legal process. Why? Because the parties in dispute have been empowered to make their own decisions about their own situation rather than have a decision imposed upon them by a court.

ENDS

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