Why Mediation Needs More Marketers By Valentino Buoro – TheNigerialawyer

By Valentino-Buoro

So much concerns are now being raised in legal circles on what
truly the new developments in the judicial sphere hold for the
business of law and its practice. With the massive invasion of
alternative dispute resolution processes, it is the obvious fact
that every litigating lawyer must now learn new ways of running
their practice if they are to remain in business.

Perhaps the hardest blow so far is the 2019 Civil Procedure
Rules of the Lagos State High Court which has made it impossible to
commence civil litigation without first going through one platform
of the ADR process.

If the foregoing challenge is of any worry, perhaps a greater
challenge which has not fully dawn on both judiciary and the larger
society is the near ignorance of potential users of ADR services on
what the process is all about. It is true that several commentators
including this writer have variously blamed the stunted growth of
ADR on the legal profession. What we all have not given significant
thought to is how the ignorance of the clients have and will
continue to hamper the growth and gains of the new regime.

Every ADR process, particularly the process of mediation, is
heavily dependent on the versatility, knowledge or rationality of
the client. Unlike litigation where the lawyer is in full control
of the skills and technicality of the process, the lawyer in ADR
must necessarily work only as partner of the client in achieving an
outcome for mediation. Where the client is neither educated about
the process nor feels obliged to make it work, the lawyer will
necessarily also be stuck.

It therefore will take the lawyer additional hours of educating,
counseling and or creating options for the client’s approval if
their day at mediation is not to be messed up. You should know as
much as I do, that not every lawyer is gifted with the art of
teaching. A significant others too may not have the patience of
taking the client from ground zero in the quest to fulfill a
brief.

This is why I have said elsewhere in my series of writing that
the unforeseen consequences of the new rules will be the breakup of
the fusion of the career paths of Barristers and solicitors in our
jurisdiction.

The question that must now be asked is whose responsibility is
it to educate the citizenry about the sea change in law which is
attempting to upstage the centuries old litigation process. Will
alternative dispute resolution achieve its objectives if we
continue in the trajectory so far established? Does it make any
sense for mediation institutions to continue to train and send out
mediators into a non-existent market?

A market is said to exist when there are sufficient willing
buyers of the products and services available. As someone has since
complained on a mediator WhatsApp group here in Lagos, there
appears now to be more mediators than cases for resolution. This is
a stark reality in the formal mediation institutions. What the
Speaker should however be understood to say is the that vast
majority of potential clients are unenlightened on the way to
go

What all of the foregoing submissions and observations amount to
is that the judiciary and the larger society are currently faced
with the grim task of building a business from scratch. The
potentials of the ADR sphere is so massive that it cannot at this
stage be left to the judiciary and respective lawyers alone. The
judiciary has done what is expected of her creditably well. It has
led the way to initiating laws, providing the rules and giving
directives to lawyers on what to do in the societal bid to fast
track justice delivery, promote amity and peace as well as
decongest our prisons.

On their part, lawyers must see the developments as a personal
call to arms. Law practice has just been disrupted just like
several other facets of our lives. What is required is to wake up
to the new reality and join hands in making the best of the new
ways of doing things. It definitely requires training and
retraining of ourselves and our clientele if our legal businesses
are to remain sustainable.

The growth of mediation in our society should also be of concern
to others, particularly the government and the corporates.
Businesses of all sizes derive more benefit mediating a range of
issues than litigating them or taking the law into their own hands.
Having said this, the true responsibility of making alternative
dispute resolution work in society must be the business of the
government. The massive structure and financials required to create
the great impact can only be provided by government.

Just like government provides massive funding for election
processes, it must arise and do same in this regard. ADR
consciousness must be created in the populace. The National
Orientation Agency perhaps has no greater calling at the moment
than to expend the several millions available to it for public
sensitization in this regard.

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