Overcoming the Mediation Paradox: Ideas, Challenges, Good practice | International Scientific Conference | Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, 2023 November 21
Purely voluntary mediation models are not functioning anywhere; thus, a concept of the balanced relationship between mediation and judicial proceedings, as developed together with Mr. Leonardo D’Urso, should be considered. Serious and reasonable mediation efforts should be required in a minimum percentage of all suitable litigated cases to create a truly functioning mediation landscape. Currently, less than 1% of all 20 million civil cases in the EU proceed to mediation, thus resulting in €50 billion being wasted without mediation. Hence, mediation is a sleeping giant that has apparently fell into a coma and urgently needs to be nudged back into life. To ignite such processes, additional regulatory measures are required, including those that provide for the mediation process to be launched directly, instead of offering merely informative sessions on the benefits of mediation. The overall conclusion is that the regulatory framework needs to be changed in order to truly motivate parties’ participation in the mediation procedure.
