Mediation will become mandatory in most civil cases, Attorney-General Charles Harnick has announced. So now a lawsuit may no longer be an intimidating club that can be wielded by one party against another. Ontario will become the first province in Canada to require mediation in all civil cases, except family law disputes.
Mediation is mandatory in Florida and other states, and conducted throughout North America.
While 97 per cent of lawsuits already end of settling before a trial, it's usually on the courthouse steps, while those sent to a Toronto mediation centre from the courts on an experimental basis have wrapped up faster, said lawyer Allan Stitt. If mediation doesn't succeed, you still go on to court. But that's what concerns Toronto lawyer Jim McDonald, who says forcing mediation on people who don't want to settle will build additional delays into the court process at added cost. But under the new plan, parties must go to court, at additional expense, to ask permission to opt out of mediation, Murphy notes. White lawyers have flocked to mediation courses in recent years, McDonald is concerned that too few are established enough to inspire widespread confidence and mediation backlogs may develop as parties try to find a mediator they like.