The newly introduced public mediation service in the maintenance court environment: Does it make a difference in the short term?

Abstract

In an effort to alleviate the negative consequences of the adversarial system of litigation the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development piloted a basic mediation training programme for all court officials in the maintenance courts in Pretoria and Johannesburg. This article entails a summary of the impact study which has been done on this training programme. The current analysis of the short-term outcomes of the pilot mediation training programme is based on two questionnaires which were designed for court officials who attended the pilot mediation training programme, and users of the two pilot maintenance courts where court officials had undergone mediation training. The second questionnaire was also administered to a sample of users of two other maintenance courts where the court officials had no mediation training in order to allow a quasi-experimental comparison of the effect of the mediation training as perceived by the users of the court. Nearly all court officials were very positive about the training received and of the opinion that court officials in other maintenance courts should also undergo the training. Furthermore, parties in the experimental courts where training was offered to court officials were significantly more satisfied with proceedings in the maintenance court, the skills of court officials, agreements reached in the process, compliance with agreements and the quality of relationships after the process has run its course than parties in the control group. Although the results of the experimental courts were significantly better, there is nonetheless scope for improvement. The most important recommendations of the impact study are that the pilot project should be extended to all maintenance courts across the country and that advanced and ongoing mediation training programmes would reinforce the new mediation skills learnt by maintenance court officials for the benefit of the judicial system, parties involved in maintenance disputes and their children.