General Practice & Other Areas
6. Alternatives to Court
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 27 Jul 2015
- While litigation (taking a matter to court) plays an important role in our justice system it is almost always time consuming, stressful and expensive.
- Your general practice lawyer will be skilled in identifying options for resolving disputes outside of court.
- This is referred to as alternative dispute resolution.
- Alternative dispute resolution methods include:
- negotiation;
- mediation;
- conciliation; and
- arbitration.
- Pursuing one of these options can be a smart alternative to litigation.
- They are especially useful where you need to have a continuing relationship with the other party for example where the other party is your ex-spouse or an employer.
- Alternative dispute resolution promotes peaceful and constructive dispute resolution as opposed to ‘battling’ a dispute out in court. See our Alternative Dispute Resolution topic for more information.
- In mediation an independent person is appointed to try and help you and the other party resolve your dispute.
- Mediation is usually a straight-forward, quick and relatively cost efficient process.
- Conciliation is similar to mediation but the independent person is an expert in the area of law and can provide advice about the way the law works.
- Conciliators may also have extra powers such as being able to direct a party to do something until the matter is then heard by court.
- Parties may still have to go to court despite attempting to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution.
- For example where parties cannot reach an agreement through alternative dispute resolution or where the matter involves a complex point of law that can only be decided by the court.
View more Information on General Practice, Other Areas