Several changes take effect today:
The Tribunal has issued four new practice directions:
Mediation services where all parties have legal representation – which requires lawyers and legal advocates to make reasonable efforts to resolve complaints on their own before participating in the Tribunal’s mediation services, if all parties have legal representation.
Complaint Response – which requires respondents to respond to a complaint, even if they will participate in mediation.
Terms of participation in mediation – which discontinues the use of the Agreement to Participate in Mediation and requires all participants to comply with the terms of the Mediation Policy, which has been updated to:
- Delete references to the Agreement to Participate in Mediation
- Amend the Conditions of Participation to reflect that the terms of the former Agreement to Participate in Mediation are now terms of the policy, including:
- Mediation is voluntary
- Mediation is confidential: exceptions are now set out in the policy; the policy addresses situations where a participant needs to speak to a person who is not attending the mediation; and the policy addresses how the mediator deals with information received when speaking to participants in the absence of other participants
New Notice: