 When you and me cannot talk and we are in a deadlock, call a mediator to get us together. Mediation is the way to go, everybody. Mediation is the way to go for conflict resolution. Let us heal our nation. Good day, St. Lucia, and welcome to our launch of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Campaign. This campaign is spearheaded by the Registry of the Supreme Court, St. Lucia, in collaboration with Compete Caribbean. I'm your host, Lisa Evans, and today we have three experienced panelists who will speak with us about mediation, its benefits, and the ways in which it can advance commerce and business in St. Lucia. Welcome, panelists. Good morning. Can we introduce ourselves to our viewers? My name is Francis Compton, and I am a trained mediator. And in addition to that, they style me as the regional mediation coordinator. OK, welcome, Mr. Compton. Yes, my name is Andrea St. Rose. And I am a trained mediator. And in addition to being a chartered accountant, I'm also an attorney at the moment. Thank you, Ms. St. Rose. Yes, right. Lisa, I am also a trained mediator. But my main role at this time is as a high court judge to be the head of the mediation committee, court-connected mediation committee, which manages mediation in the high court. OK, all right. Well, the saying goes that the first will be last and the last will be first. So you are the last to introduce yourself, Justice Bell. Could you tell us a bit about the history of mediation in St. Lucia? OK, there's an old jazz standard. I don't know if anybody here is a jazz enthusiast. This is jazz time in St. Lucia. But the old jazz standard called what a difference a day makes. And if you're looking at the impact of mediation, we have to go back to the time when the civil procedure rules were introduced in the Eastern Caribbean. And those rules were introduced for the express purpose of ensuring that the court could manage its case load better than what obtained prior to the inception of those rules. So we had rules that not only tried to manage the conduct of cases in terms of the material being filed, how they should be filed, how they should be managed as the matters actually ranked the court, but also introducing for the first time the use of ADR, and in particular mediation as part of those rules, as part of the system of justice, of trying to have matters managed justly and expediting matters in a time which is helpful to everyone. And remember, as quickly as possible, not at speed is the objective, but not to base time in situations where people are looking at technical issues rather than looking at what they have in common and how they can resolve differences. So from the inception of the CPR, it was written into the CPR that ADR would be part of the court's repertoire, so to speak. You start at the very beginning of the rules, and you see that the rules require that lawyers and any officer of the court, the primary objective is to make sure that cases are dealt with justly and expedited. So that then refers you to another rule. It says when you're managing a case, one of the things that you should refer to the parties is the availability of mediation or ADR as a route to resolving the issues in your matter. So these are instruments available and mechanisms available on the rules of the court for parties who are involved in disputes to immediately look at the opportunity that exists to settle those disputes. Now, I know that the court in St. Lucia, it was spearheaded in St. Lucia, first of all, and that is where the first pilot project was started in St. Lucia. Yes. That's amazing. And then it went on from there to be spread to the entire Caribbean in practice direction of 2003, number one. And that practice direction then settled all of the various aspects of the mechanisms for introducing mediation into the court system in the region. So we can say that we are trendsetters and that we can set the standard for mediation and ADR in the Eastern Caribbean. Because, of course, the headquarters of the court is right here in St. Lucia. It was there at the time as well. So what we had then was it being rolled out through all of the territories, the states, the member states, first of all, and territories of the Eastern Caribbean. But, Justice Bell, to interject, what kind of impact did the introduction of mediation and ADR have in settling commercial disputes? So what was it like when this was introduced? First of all, the initial thing was to try to determine what kind of dispute it was. It did say, the practice direction did say what kinds of disputes would not be settled. But it didn't try to say at first, well, only we focus on commercial or whatever. But the reality is that as long as there's a marketplace where people enter into contracts, as long as people are doing business and using machinery and labor and that kind of thing, accidents are gonna happen, things on the road, et cetera, et cetera. All these things are interconnected. So the more you're developing and the faster you're developing, the more likely it is you're gonna be getting disputes coming to court over your development issues. And when they come to court, they may not appear that way. They may appear very personal and so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, it is really a person who had a contract to deliver something and it wasn't delivered and therefore somebody wants to know well, should they still pay or they actually feel they should have paid or that the other person owes them money because the thing wasn't delivered. And that's a contract breach and they want to sue. Question is, how important is the business relationship? And then you start to look at those kind of issues. I'm sure Mr. Compton will have a lot more to say about that. But when you look at those kind of issues, then you realize where the opportunity is from mediation because even though on paper, it may appear as though this is a, oh boy, this is a difficult dispute here. This is a real parting of the ways. At the end of the day, those two persons may somewhere along the line still feel that they could do business with each other. And if that is part of their feeling, well, then mediation gives them the opportunity to settle this matter, move on and continue doing business. Continue making money and continue developing. Continue making money, yes. Yes, just as that, I don't know what your take is on this, but from my perspective, I see the mediation process, at least when it goes through the court system, it comes a bit late. And what is your take in terms of making recommendations for mediation to form part of the pre-action protocol so that matters dealt with even before you get to the state where you file your claim. I have no difficulty with that. That exists elsewhere. I saw forms in New York City, I visited courts, and I saw forms where lawyers have to make declarations that they have tried a form of alternative dispute resolution before bringing them out of the court or before the first case management hearing or the first hearing in the court system. So that is actually fairly normal. We didn't do it at first because I think that the concern was at first that we wanted people to know that they were under the direction of the court. And we wanted the mediators to also be subject to a referral. We wanted that kind of formality at first so that the mediator would have to wait for a referral from a judge or a master to have to get the mediator going under our core connected mediation system. The concept that it could be brought over here by an individual could simply come to court and say, well, I did go to a mediator and we didn't settle or whatever as the case may be. That is not something that should be difficult to implement. Okay, thank you so much for that. I know we're on fire. We're about to take a break and we'll pick up from this point afterwards. Thank you. Pamela, I noticed that you built your retaining wall on my property. You'll have to give me my land back or compensate me for that. My contractor isn't dumb. I trust that he will not build anything on your property. Where is your proof? Let's go to court. This situation does not require you to go to court. Looks like we have to go through mediation here. Mediation is a way people resolve conflicts like this. Someone, a third party, comes to speak to both parties. This person is called the mediator. The mediator is impartial. He or she makes sure that communication between both parties is effective and efficient. So the mediator is a judge? No, the mediator is not a judge. Mediators, unlike judges, do not decide cases or impose settlements. Let me get a mediator to handle this retaining wall and that kitchen. Kitchen? Yes, your kitchen also falls on my land. Let me call the mediator. And we are back. We ended on a very interesting note about the role of court-connected mediation and mediation prior to entering into the litigation process. Mr. Compton, can you enlighten us about mediation and just continue along with where we stopped off? Okay, just to carry on from where Justice Bell left off. I want to refer to the practice direction already alluded to by Justice Bell. When the practice direction was promulgated and the thinking behind that at the time was that the court should be given the opportunity to manage cases and part of that management process included the opportunity and at the time it was suggested that the judges should recommend to the parties during the case management process that they try mediation. And what the court did was to train sufficient mediators so that and put some on a roster so that the judge would have a panel of mediators that persons could be referred to and would then mediate the cases. Now I have to tell you that the court made it its business to train persons at a level to operate with the court in terms of resolving disputes. Now, there was a little bit of evolution in that the court or the practice direction said that the judges should recommend ADR in particular mediation. Now what happened in the evolution over time? The judges then after we realized that mediation works because I have to say it at Justice Bell can support this in the initial stages and that had been told to me by certain judges some of them have gone to the grid beyond. It was difficult at the time for the chief justice to get all the judges on board as far as accepting mediation. Many of them or most of them accepted it but some were skeptical as to. And it's reasonable, judges would say for instance it sometimes takes us two, three years to resolve a matter. How do you expect a lay person with no legal training to resolve a dispute that is in the court in three hours? So people were very, this is how initially mediation was given three hours within which to resolve a dispute but with additional time added. But gradually people began to see that mediation works because as I said the mediators were trained properly to operate at that level. And in the initial stages, a number of cases were selected so that persons would find not too great a difficulty in resolving. So what happened in the evolution process is that judges became more robust in recommending parties to mediation. And I remember there was a particular judge and she just had to open her eyes fairly wide to the parties and they would understand what she means by recommending that they go to mediation. And we found this worked. Yes, so the results were positive when persons were referred to mediation. The project as Justice Bell mentioned was set up in St. Lucia as a pilot. And the pilot was expected to run for one year before it could be deemed successful enough to replicate it in the other OECS territories. It was so successful in St. Lucia and very soon after practice direction, 2003, yeah, number one of 2003. Yes, even before that, the Chief Justice then appointed me to be the regional mediation coordinator. Now I have to say that mediation is run with a regional mediation coordinator and individual mediation coordinators in each of the territories. So we went about identifying persons to be on committees in each of the territories and persons to be appointed as mediation coordinators in each of the territories. And after my appointment, what we did, we did not wait for a year and we started the replication program by training persons, identifying and training persons in each of the OECS territories. So you find that within the year that it was supposed to be piloted in St. Lucia, we were piloting it in all the OECS territories. Yes, and we selected, there is a process for selecting persons to be trained as mediators and there's also a process for appointing persons to be on the roster of court-connected mediators. All these things were done very well in the initial stages. So the project became very successful in each of the OECS territories within the year that it was supposed to be piloted in St. Lucia. So listen to what you're saying that the process is so structured and it's proper that the general public and business owners and persons who want to access mediators know that they're trained to a high standard. Oh yes, yes. A very high standard. So they have that confidence that they're getting well-equipped persons. Oh yes, absolutely. And that was made absolutely clear in all our publicity information at the onset. And it's important to note that the court is aware that not all the persons that access its training could be deemed suitable to operate at the level of the Supreme Court. We have persons, as was alluded to, who operate at the magistrates level or who could operate at the community level where the expectations at the community level may not necessarily be as great as at the court level, because bearing in mind, not only can a trial judge send a matter to mediation, but we realize over time that even at the level of the appeal court, if a matter arrives at the level of the appeal court and the appeal court judges feel that this is a matter that could be mediated, they're free to send it to mediation even at that level. So they know that they have trained persons who could operate at that level as mediators. And those persons who are not on the roster, and I must say it's not everybody who's on the roster who would be called to mediate, because the mediator has to develop himself or herself to be acceptable to the lawyers who are the greatest consumers of mediation. And for that reason you find some, in all the territories of the OECS, you have some persons who rise up to the top as far as their selectability to mediate any matter and there are others who would occasionally get mediations. That does not mean that the persons who are not selected are not good mediators because the court has a pre-selection process to select persons to be trained. And then after the training there's another process to select those persons who could apply to be placed on the roster of court-connected mediators. And then the rest is for the consumers of mediation to determine who they want to select to mediate a particular case. That was very succinct, Mr. Compton. I'm sorry but we have to take a break but it's really great to know that we have a high standard for court-appointed mediators. We will be back after the break. Oi, you have realized you step on my tour. Well, do something about it. I'm going to burst into dust. Hollan! If somebody tries to cross you Hollan! And your matting start to take you Hollan! No need for all our violences because the police is there to help you Hollan! If our trouble starts in this session Alright! No need for aggressions Hollan! We don't want no violences in the play Control your temper Respect each other Trouble escalators, you know Control your temper A message from Mission Boys Studio 758 Acid Creations and the Royals and Lucia Police Force. So we just found out that not only is mediation available through the registry of the Supreme Court in St. Lucia and not only are our mediators trained to a very high standard but mediation is one of the choice preferences for settling disputes and settling conflicts throughout the Caribbean and I can say throughout the world one of the things that we realize that's very prevalent in St. Lucia and one of the things that we are pushing for is the development of businesses the development we're trying to create in the entrepreneurial mindset. Many women engage in business activities we have vendors we have female farmers we have female professionals and consultants and I'd like to pose to you Ms. St. Rose how can women better utilize the availability of mediation when they're faced with conflict when they're in a dispute especially you know where there can be power imbalances you know employer, employee you know you're a vendor you sell to a larger business owner and for some reason you don't get paid on time you know how can women take advantage of what mediation has to offer Okay so let's start as a listen an environment where there's a process in place for settlement of disputes is very good for business it's also one of the means that you know the country can use to attract investment an investor would not like to know that you are operating an environment where if you have a dispute it will take years to get resolved and so that is a very good selling point for St. Lucia as a whole that we have a proper system in place to assist with the resolution of disputes businesses on the whole people enter into transactions there will be disagreements disagreements will arise just as one of the things that go with doing business Yes and so it is very important that people are able to take advantage of that process to assist them in resolving disputes efficiently because time has a value to it time has a dollar value to it in that you do not want to be caught up in a process where you are going into court of a protracted period of time when you have a business to run in the case of women in particular they face imbalances that we will have to accept in that when a woman goes into a dispute situation say with a man there is that feeling that the man is in a higher power authoritative position and so I see mediation as one of them is that could assist in resolving that sort of power imbalance and to ensure that women can take advantage of the business opportunities that are available to them and don't shy away from the fact that I cannot deal with this business person because I don't have the authority to bargain with them because if a dispute arises I cannot get it settled and so I think that it is very good that we have a proper system in place but I think that needs to be a more more education needs to go out there to allow people to be aware of the disputes that are amenable to mediation in my experience I have come across a number of situations where disputes arise with financial institutions for example where people have entered into agreements with the financial institution then interest rates have changed without even proper notice to the business person and as a result they end up in a situation where the loan goes into a raise then you find that the institution is taking action to foreclose on their properties I have seen cases where mediation has successfully come up with a resolution in terms of allowing the parties to continue business I have also seen cases where in the workplace mediation has played a significant role in terms of resolving disputes between employer and employee especially when it comes to situation where people are complaining about the workload compensation and the imbalances that exist discrimination between what is paid to a man versus what is paid to a woman I have seen cases where these things have been resolved through mediation personal injury is another situation where I have seen mediation come into play where people have been able to reach agreement in terms of the level of damages that they would accept for loss of employment for example for pain and suffering I have seen these issues come before mediation with successful with successful resolution the one thing I know many advised people when you enter into an agreement is to have a clause in there that speaks to mediation as one of the the first routes that you would take in terms of resolving your dispute before you run to the court for a resolution from my perspective as well mediation is cost efficient in that it is the timeline for mediation generally takes maybe you know three hours, six hours depending on the nature of the resolution and so for the businesswoman who does not have you know significant resources this is a way of obtaining resolution to a dispute efficient manner that's really true you wanted to add anybody else before we close? the whole thing about mediation is that it is empowering because an individual who doesn't have a lot of resources and time for something like court would want to know that they can get the dispute resolved in a manner that is done quickly, relatively speaking, and relatively not very costly and therefore individuals who may be involved in small businesses mentioned vendors and so on which tends to be dominated by women they can see themselves as being empowered by the fact that they can now actually take charge of their situation and resolve their disputes by way of mediation, the assistance of a mediator Oh, highly trained mediator Yes, a well trained mediator and that in fact leads them to recognize that going down the road every time they have a problem it doesn't mean that you know their business is probably facing closure or something like that they have to look for money they can actually resolve the dispute and go on and move on with their lives Yes, that's great, Mr. Compton, final words? Yes, I wanted to add to what Justice Bell and Andrea said here when a mediation is completed during the session the mediator will actually write in ordinary language, no legal reason ordinary language and agreement that the parties themselves have arrived at and they will sign that agreement but the mediation process allows for that written agreement to be sent back to the judge the judge will read that agreement and confirm in his mind I mean mediators are trained to recognize this as well but as long as that agreement is doable and is not illegal as far as the judge is concerned the judge will then issue an order subsequent to the mediation agreement and will attach that handwritten mediation agreement to the order That is awesome That order is enforceable in a court That's amazing, so my view is you've heard it for yourself mediation agreements are enforceable by the court through the process is available so please call us today 468-7500 you can have a look at our website www.lcmediation.org find us on Facebook LC Mediation on Twitter LC Mediation YouTube LC Mediation we're here to help you resolve your disputes in the quickest most efficient way and also to help enhance your relationships so for the longevity of your businesses and your livelihoods thank you so much for joining us and we look forward to interacting with you online to go everybody mediation is the way to go for conflict resolution let us heal our nation