"Government to improve solving LAR-cases sooner

April 12, 2011 3:48 PM

ORANJESTAD — Mediation could be a solution for the large number of administrative cases (LAR) with which the government is confronted every year.

Nevertheless, Minister of Justice Arthur Dowers (AVP) rather prefers the solution of the government managing their matters better. In other cases, such as disputes on reason or labor circumstances and conditions, he prefers the government to mediate instead of going to court.

Dower said this last Saturday when he presented certificates to six participants of a mediation training that was held here. The Aruban government applies mediation, but not on a large scale. The government is interested although the plans are not concrete yet. The Court carried out an experiment last year whereby judges could refer cases (with the exception of criminal law) to mediators in order to come up with a solution. Judge Jos Roovers was the driving force of mediation with the Court. However, after his departure, the project came to a standstill as well. On this, Dower says, “I fear that one judge made an attempt but that it had not been very successful because people usually want to be put in the right. Mediation is a tradition, which people are not actually acquainted with here and they often want to win their case in court. However, if people were prepared to enter into a conversation with each other more often in a decent manner, a lot could be solved before going to court.”

The Minister therefore supports mediation, but says this government has not made the choice yet for example in making it mandatory for judges to refer certain cases to a mediator first. “Nevertheless, I observe that judges themselves often order a comparison, offering lawyers the opportunity to solve the case with the clients themselves. That is a step in the right direction, which eventually could lead to choosing mediation and providing such through the court.” However, as yet Dowers doesn’t consider this the solution for the large number of LAR-cases. “The largest percentage of cases brought before the LAR-judge either regards the government not taking a decision or not taking it on time. One does not solve this by mediation, but by proper functioning, and in that sense, I actually think we have to arrange a number of cases with the government better before thinking about mediation.”

In The Netherlands, judges refer to mediators more often in order to reduce the pressure and costs at courts. Especially in family cases, labor disputes, administrative cases and commercial cases, it appears from experience that mediation is actually better than having the judge give a decision on the case. Nevertheless, the government is using mediation more often in disputes with citizens and companies, for instance, the UWV (authority for employee’s insurances) and the tax department have been using mediators for several years now to solve disputes.

(Source: Amigoe Aruba)

11 April 2011