Nigerian mediators have said lawyers are indispensable in the mission to advance or popularise the Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms among Nigerian litigants. They have, therefore, called on lawyers not to see ADR as a threat to litigation, which is the core of
the legal practice, but to always encourage their clients to first
consider or explore ADR to resolve their business disputes before resorting to litigation.
This call was made last Thursday by mediators who converged on the
Lagos Court of Arbitration for a conference on the use of ADR to
resolve disputes in the entertainment industry. The two-day conference was organised by the LCA in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration and Mediation Centre, Geneva, Switzerland with the support of the JAMS Foundation.
A lawyer, Mrs. Shola Oshodi-John,
in her presentation on ‘Understanding the Mediation Process,’ used a diagram, which suggested that lawyers were
opposed to ADR. Reacting to the
diagram, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr.
M.M.A. Sanni, said there was the need to find a way to make lawyers support ADR, adding that the level of awareness of ADR among Nigerian litigants was still very low.
Responding, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian lawyer, Mr. Ike Ehiribe, said there might be a need for Nigeria to adopt the system in the UK where the failure of lawyers to tell their clients about the availability of ADR before litigation was treated as a professional misconduct.
Ehiribe said, “In the jurisdiction where I practise, which is the United Kingdom, it is a professional misconduct matter for a solicitor not to advise his or her client about the availability of ADR. So, at first, any solicitor advising a party must record that he has advised the client
that he has the option of exploring ADR or mediation first and if that solicitor fails to do it, his practice is on the line.
I’m just saying that it is something to also consider. We can call lawyers all sorts of names but unless we take the concern raised to the regulatory bodies, nothing will happen.” The Legal Officer of WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre, Mr. Leandro Toscano, said Nigeria might consider adopting the system in other jurisdictions where a
client who insisted on litigation after being given the option of ADR would be made to pay more.
The Director of Training, Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, Mr. Martins Chidy, said mediators had not done enough to allay the fear of lawyers that ADR was not intended to remove food from their table. He said the first step towards popularising ADR was to let lawyers understand that ADR was not an alternative to litigation
but a complementary process.
Chidy said, “There are cases you don’t mediate; there are cases that are the exclusive preserve of the court. And the mediation, arbitration or whatever name we call it is not there to take over from the court.”
By: Ramon Oladimeji
The Punch
