PAIGE PARSONS Courts explore options for dispute resolution

So your neighbour lets their dog poop on your lawn. So an oil company wants to put gas wells up across the road from your farm. So your ex wants the kids at Christmas every year.

Professionals who deal in dispute resolution and mediation make a business of tackling conflict before it escalates to a legal battle. But as the province’s superior court looks to reduce civil trial wait times, encouraging parties to find ways to address conflict outside of court has become a joint interest of various public, private and legal bodies.

Dispute resolution can be used to address various types of conflict, such as family fights, condo board concerns, tenant troubles, environmental issues, business battles, workplace investigations or even restorative justice, according to its practitioners.

And when such disputes escalate to the point of a civil court case, it’s incumbent on courts to encourage litigants to attempt settlement, says Edmonton family lawyer Gordon Andreiuk, who co-chaired a symposium on alternative dispute resolution earlier in 2018.

“(Courts) don’t need to stick their noses into absolutely everything. They have to recognize that we can’t support the endlessly more expensive court system. There has to be practical ways of resolving disputes as well,” he says.

In 2010, a new Court of Queen’s Bench rule was introduced that mandates civil parties attempt dispute resolution before going to trial. But the rule was suspended just two years later because of a shortage of judicial resources that overwhelmed the court’s ability to offer one type of mediation: judicial dispute resolution (JDR), during which the parties meet with a judge.

In July, the court announced a proposal for a pilot project that would see the mandatory dispute resolution rule put back in force. The court has said more judicial resources are available to accommodate JDRs, but in an emailed statement, Diana Lowe, executive counsel to the chief justice, says that there remains concern that the court still won’t be able to accommodate all requests for JDRs, and so the court is hopeful some of the demand can be tackled through mediation by private dispute resolution professionals and Government of Alberta initiatives.

Andreiuk says there seems to be some “mystique and misperception” among the public and lawyers that dispute resolution before a judge is superior to what can be achieved by a professional mediator. Previously, it was also free. To encourage parties to give other methods besides JDRs a try, the

court will require parties to pay a $600 trial fee up front before being allowed to book a JDR. Family cases are exempt from paying up front in order to encourage early resolution, Lowe says.

This year’s Conflict Resolution Day falls on Oct. 18 and will see workshops and other public events hosted around the province.

Ideally, more Albertans will be able to develop skills to tackle conflict without it escalating to the point of a legal dispute, says organizers Ali Ansell and Paul Conway.

Ansell works in alternative dispute resolution for the Alberta Energy Regulator, and Conway is the executive director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Alberta.

“You’ve got to own your own conflict. You’ve got to take some responsibility yourself for resolving it. And that actually often means sitting down and talking to the party you’re in conflict with,” Conway says.

Details about Conflict Resolution Day can be found on the event’s website.