Brian Jerome and Michael Zeytoonian made a presentation on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to a group of 12 Nigerian Judges and high ranking court officials on August 5, 2015 in Cambridge, MA. The presentation was part of a program the judges are attending offered by the UMASS Center for Peace, Democracy and Development. The presentations were followed by a lively question and answer session in which the judges discussed the court system in Nigeria, where a “multi door court” ADR option is a prominent part of the court system.
Jerome, who is the founder and director of Massachusetts Dispute Resolution Services in Boston, drew from his many years as an arbitrator, mediator and private ADR provider. He spoke about the use of privately offered (as opposed to court-connected) mediation and arbitration. He also spoke about the use of Conciliation in some courts. Both Jerome and Zeytoonian discussed the varying degrees throughout the Massachusetts courts that courts and judges have accepted and promoted the use of ADR in some state court and the federal courts.
Zeytoonian, founder and director of Dispute Resolution Counsel, LLC in Wellesley and Westborough, MA, spoke about mediation, Collaborative Law and the use of ombuds services. He also discussed the differences between interest-based ADR processes (mediation, Collaborative Law) and positional and adversarial processes (arbitration and litigation). He noted that the federal court’s system of scheduling case management conferences at the beginning of the case and discussing the mediation option early in the process was more effective that the state Superior Courts, in which the option of mediation is not typically even raised by the court until the pre-trial conference that takes place after discovery and motion practice have been completed.
Nigerian judges discuss ADR in their court system
The Nigerian judges shared some of the practices of the courts in their country, which consists of both local courts and a federal court. They noted that the time period from the time a case is filed with the courts until their pre-trial conferences is much shorter – a few months – than in Massachusetts, where it can be anywhere from 18 months to three years before a pre-trial conference takes place. They also noted that in their courts, two judges are assigned to every case, one with the duty of managing the case and the other with the responsibility of doing the trial.
Further, in the Nigerian court system, a determination is made by the courts early in the case (after filing of the complaint and the answer) whether the case is a good candidate to get assigned to the multi door court to pursue mediation or continue with the litigation process Their Chief Justice also noted that their pre-trial conferences may extend out over a month’s time and usually include several follow up meetings in which the parties, lawyers and judges actively discuss settling the case.
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