No fewer than 92 cases have been resolved in the last two years by the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse (LMDC), investigation has shown.
National Mirror gathered that these cases were successfully resolved out of the total number of 368 cases which were either filed through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism or referred to the courthouse by the Lagos State High Court in 2011 and 2012.
It was learnt that during the period, a total number of 119 court-referred matters were brought before the LMDC for determination.
A list of statistics showing the performance indicators of the centre and exclusively obtained by the National Mirror in Lagos revealed that in 2011, about 139 cases were filed before the centre while a total of 229 cases were filed in 2012.
The statistics further indicated that 128 matters were filed for mediation in 2011 as against 204 filed in 204.
Besides, 11 arbitration and other ADR matters were filed in 2011 with a 100 per cent of 25 arbitration cases in 2012. In year 2011, the number of court-referred matters was 31 with a sharp increase to 88 cases in 2012.
The number of walkin matters was 108 in 2011 while this figure slightly rose to 141 in the following year.
The statistics further showed that 15 cases were discontinued or withdrawn in 2011 but in 2012, only 25 cases were either discontinued or withdrawn at the centre. It was learnt that the centre could not resolve 81 cases in 2011.
The following year however, only 63 cases were unresolved. So far, the number of cases carried over as ongoing and pending with the centre from last year is 68 while only five cases were ''on hold'' from last year.
The LMDC is an ADR centre that is established statutorily to promote public confidence in the process and encourage the early settlement of cases pending in the state high court.
Being the first courtconnected ADR centre in Africa since 2002, matters are usually brought to the LMDC through court referrals, walk-ins or direct intervention.
Last January, the Director of the LMDC, Mrs. Caroline Etuk, had said the centre had successfully resolved a total of 780 cases out of the 1,708 referred to it within the last 10 years.
Etuk said that most of the cases were referred to the court from the High Court of Lagos State, adding that the 780 cases were amicably settled.
"The cases we have settled during our annual Settlement Week since we started in 2002, ranges from breach of contract, landlord and tenant disputes, family matters as well as defamation.
"Generally, we handle the whole range of matters that we have on the litigation track. We had a lot of banking cases as well.
"We even had people coming in whose matters were not referred from court and they wanted to be part of the Settlement Week."
Etuk said the outcomes of the settlements were sent to the ADR judges who entered them as the judgement of the court.
The director condemned the poor response of lawyers and litigants to ADR and attributed this to the low figure of cases handled by the court in the last 10 years.
She said that the introduction of mediation and arbitration into the legal process was aimed at reducing the number of civil cases in courts.
According to her, embracing the ADR process saves time, is cost effective and also helps in maintaining cordial relationships between the parties in the dispute.
Etuk, however, said that the introduction of ADR into the High Court of Lagos (Civil Procedures) Rules 2012, had made it mandatory for lawyers and litigants to embrace the system.
National Mirror