Court Mediation

According to the penal and civil codes, criminal courts and civil courts, respectively since 1998 and 2006, offer the possibility of directing cases to a mediation process. As regards criminal cases the potential conciliation of the victim and the offender is taken into account in further decisions of the court, e.g. discontinuation of a case, conditional suspension of a case, taking the parties’ conciliation into account in a court’s ruling, etc. In a civil law case the conciliation becomes legally binding once approved by a court. It gains an enforceability clause and serves as the basis for enforcement of the decisions. The decision about mediation in a criminal case is made by the police, the district attorney’s office or the court. Mediation can take place against a request of one of the parties. In a civil law case it is the court who proposes a mediation initiative or mediation takes place against a request of one of the parties or its attorney.

Mediation can be also applied in cases involving minors as offenders (Ordinance of Minister of Justice of 18 May 2001 on mediation in cases involving minors). A judge in a court dealing with family cases and cases involving minors can submit any case to mediation on the condition that the offender and the victim express consent to it.

Areas of our activities / advantages of court mediation

We have been working for courts for many years. Settlements made in our presence led to reconciliation between the parties of a conflict and often ended long court disputes.

The advantage of mediation is that both parties involved have worked out and accepted the solution, unlike the arbitrary court decision. Usually mediations take much less time than court hearings, thus allowing to close the dispute faster, not allowing for it to escalate like it often happens in legal proceedings (i.e. collecting proofs, looking for guilty).

The parties can also apply to a court for approval of an agreement reached in the presence of a mediator without opening a hearing (the so-called extra-judicial settlements).

See also: Facilitation of meetings | Decision-making | Coaching for managers