There is a Civil Dispute Resolution Bill currently before Federal Parliament in the House of Reps. It reflects strongly the current federal government perspective that more needs to be done to foster early out of court dispute resolution. Its proposed new laws strongly support the line of thinking that I have been putting forth on this blog.
The aim of the new law i s to “improve access to justice by focusing parties and their lawyers on the early resolution of disputes.” It wants to ensure that parties take “genuine steps” to resolve a civil dispute before proceedings are commenced in any federal court or tribunal.
It wants lawyers to do more than just pay lip service to ADR (alternative dispute resolution) thinking and strategies and then return to the standard litigation mode of thinking. This is definitely NOT taking “genuine steps” to resolve the dispute out of court and, best of all, BEFORE court proceedings are commenced.
The new laws, if passed, will give more power to the courts to use stricter case management powers to ensure that such genuine steps have been taken before allowing the case to be further progressed down the litigation pathway.
It will also invest the court with greater power to use cost orders at the end of a case to penalize those lawyers who are revealed to have categorically failed to have genuinely attempted to apply alternative dispute resolution strategies to avoid long and expensive litigation.
This Bill draws on the recommendations of the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC) in its report published in November 2009. A copy of this Bill and the NADRAC report are available in the Free Library of this website. Just click on “home” to go to www.chriswhitelaw.com.au where you will see the link in the top bar menu.
I will keep you posted on developments in this area.
Chris Whitelaw
www.chriswhitelaw.com.au
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