Contact
JUDr. Hana Lenghartová
attorney-at-law and registered mediator,
member of the A.D.R. section of the Czech Bar Association
Dlouhá 16, Praha 1, 11000
[map]
lenghartova@advokat-mediator.com
Telephone:
227 195 390-1
602 381 701
IN: 66246547
Links
Diplomatic Academy
www.diplomaticka-akademie.cz/
Czech Bar Association
www.cak.cz/
List of Mediators
www.justice.cz/
Mediation Proceedings
Conflicts have always been, unfortunately, part of our lives. They may differ on their nature or the cause of why they arise, however the one common denominator for all of them is us and our role in dealing with them. No matter whether the legal dispute concerns parenting matters or relations between two businesses that broke down, the bottom line is, how are we going to approach settling such dispute?
Mediation is a form of ADR (alternative dispute resolution), meaning it is a lawful alternative to solve an unpleasant situation essentially without having to go to a court. Mediation proceeding involves a type of informal meeting between the parties and an independent third party – the mediator, who works to help them reach an agreement between themselves.
A mediator is an expert in effective negotiation who uses various communication techniques and strategies to help the participants of mediation to reach a settlement of their dispute and find a mutually acceptable solution. Usually mediators have legal or psychology education, both closely linked to conflict solving and communication. A mediator is always remains an impartial person bound by confidentiality.
Mediation process can be held only by a person registered in the Register of Mediators of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.
There are many advantages of mediation over litigation:
- Interests, needs and priorities of participants are the driving force of negotiations, as opposed to guilt, truth or justice
- Searching for a solution, not a perpetrator
- The participating parties can terminate the negotiations at any point in time
- Privacy of participating parties and confidentiality of disclosed information are respected
- Faster than a court case – civil court proceedings take 2 years on average, mediation brings solution within hours or days
- Cheaper than a court case – the participants do not need to pay for two attorneys and court fees, they only pay for one mediator and even split the costs
- The participants create the contents of the resulting agreement, they are the ones who decide about their cause, not an authority
Mediation Agreement
The mediation agreement is a written agreement of both parties and is a conclusion of the mediation proceedings. Its contents are created by the participants of mediation who are also responsible for them. In order for the agreement to be put into practice the disputing parties have to present it to the court in the form of court agreement according to §99 of the Civil Court Code. The mediator’s responsibility is to make sure the mediation agreement is in line with relevant legislative or the court will not validate it. A validated agreement has the same executive value as a lawful court decision.
Principle of Voluntarity
The participants of mediation choose this method voluntarily, i.e. instead of hiring an attorney to represent them and take their case to the court – and make it into a dispute – they agree to find a mediator that doesn’t represent any of the parties and so isn’t biased and take the peaceful path to reach an agreement.
The court can decide the participants of the dispute to meet the mediator for the first meeting in the range of three hours, in harmony with §100/2 of the Civil Court Code. This means that during an existing dispute the court makes a decision to stop the proceedings where applicable and effective and try to reach a peaceful resolution to the case through mediation.
Mediation Success Rate
How successful mediation proceedings will be depends on how willing the participants are to solve their dispute through agreement. Even without a final mediation agreement the mediation can still be deemed successful, because the parties come to such a mutual understanding that they do not need to write up an agreement and so they terminate the mediation process to negotiate the rest without the service of a mediator. When there’s will, there’s a way.
The mediation success rate is more than 80%.