NEWS RELEASE - Date: Thursday, 21 September 2008

Equillore presents Court-based Mediation strategy

Hosted by the Department of Justice, in conjunction with USAID and Business against Crime, the conference focused on the implementation of best practices and tools of case flow management. The theme was “Towards the speedy finalization, the effective and efficient management, of cases.”

In his opening speech, the Hon Judge Mogoeng wa Mogoeng, Judge President of the North West High Court, clearly stated the purpose of the conference to be: “..a brutal self-introspection accompanied by appropriate programmes of action to eliminate negative perceptions about the justice system though a caseflow improvement programme or plan.” He emphasized the fact that delay destroys the purpose of Courts, and that the purpose of underlying Caseflow Management is justice: “Justice delayed, is justice denied.”

Wahida was able to draw on Equillore‘s unique track record of processing more than 30,000 civil claims over the last 10 years, and the irrefutable demonstration of the quantifable benefits of early intervention in defined categories of civil disputes that would normally have taken years of valuable court time to conclude, thereby tying up resources that are better focused on alleviating the pressure from criminal matters.

Equillore is able to make conciliation, mediation and arbitration an integral part of the process of dispute settlement in a multi-tiered approach that is complementary to and integrated with standard litigation procedures

She presented Equillore‘s innovative strategy that will harness this capability, in partnership with the Dept of Justice, to make certain targeted civil claims subject to mediation. The goal is to facilitate:

• settlement of disputes, or at least to narrow the points of dispute;
• the consideration of alternative ways of dealing with the dispute;
• informed decision making regarding the future of the dispute.

She said that: “Equillore is proud and priviledged to be invited to be part of this crucial strategic programme of action to streamline the Courts and expedite the processing of civil claims. More than a decade of hard work and focus has resulted in this recognition of Equillore as a strategic role player in this programme of national importance.”

Equillore chairman, Adv Dumisa Ntsebeza SC added: “Equillore is a unique example of strategic collaboration between the private and public sector, and an alignment of interest in the over-arching agenda of ensuring each South African‘s constitutional right to a speedy and fair trail.”

Cape Town 8 September 2008

The full transcript of Judge President Mogoeng's key-note address is available here for download.

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