But the society believes if mandatory mediation becomes a reality, it should be part of a system of civil justice paid for by the government. The task force, Mr. Silver noted, believes there is a better than 60 per cent chance of settling a case through mediation. But the cost of the 1 mediation is only well spent if the mediation is productive, argues Peter Cavanagh, a lawyer with Fraser and Beatty in Toronto. There are cases that can't be settled immediately, and cases that must be deferred while the parties round up evidence, experts, and witnesses, or discuss the credibility of evidence. Mediation works because it treats every case on its own terms.
Every case is different.
Then there's the issue of adjournments. Mr. Silver noted that the court-annexed ADR Centre had a very high adjournment rate. Matters like medical malpractice and loss of profit cases, by their very nature, will never be ready to go shortly after pleadings, he said. You have to have a maturation period in which the damage is crystallized. Ms. McLeod said the committee is looking at including some kind of deferral mechanism.