Court Opinion

ID: 9582261
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:24:18.611209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:35.333358
License: Public Domain

Clarke, Presiding Justice,
concurring.
While I concur with the majority, I want to emphasize thé propriety and, in fact, necessity of our courts utilizing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
In 1982, the people of Georgia spoke to the judicial system through the most solemn means at their command, the ratification of *309a new Constitution. The voice of the people is memorialized in Article VI, Section IX, Paragraph I of the 1983 Constitution of Georgia where it instructs us to administer the judicial system in such a way that it will “provide for the speedy, efficient, and inexpensive resolution of disputes and prosecutions.”
The people created our system of courts for the purpose of resolving disputes and if the courts do not serve that purpose they fail to justify their existence. I agree that all persons should have access to the courts, but I do not agree that this requires a full-blown trial in every case. In my view, the spirit of the Constitution and the best interest of the parties is frequently better served by court-encouraged settlement. We all recognize the propriety of a judge calling counsel into the court’s chambers and guiding a settlement conference. I see no less propriety in the court’s guidance that a mediator sit with the parties rather than the court itself.
The practice of a court requiring parties to make a good faith effort to mediate their differences is not foreign to the American judicial system. The federal courts frequently follow this procedure. An obvious example is 29 USCA § 108. This section of the code provides that no restraining order or injunctive relief shall be granted a complainant in a labor dispute who failed to make every reasonable effort to settle by negotiation or with the aid of mediation or voluntary arbitration.
I recognize that some parties may attempt to use court-directed mediation for the purposes of delay. I believe, however, that the trial court can and, in fact, must avoid this possibility by imposing strict time limitations upon the mediation procedure, and that the absence of such time limitation would cause the order of the court to fall upon review. With the time limitation in place, there is every reason to believe this procedure would expedite rather than delay the resolution of the dispute.
In an era of deep concern over delays in litigation and crowded court calendars, it is incongruous to discourage reasonable means of resolving disputes short of full-blown litigation. Mediation can save time for the parties and the courts. Mediation can save money for the parties and the courts. Mediation can lead to better results. These are the exact goals the people directed the courts toward when the Constitution referred to “speedy, efficient and effective resolution of disputes.” I believe the Constitution points the courts in the direction of using mediation and other alternative dispute resolution procedures as tools within the judicial workshop available to repair the good order of society.