THE "BENEFITS OF MEDIATION IN DEALING WITH CONFLICTS" CONFERENCE/ZENO ŞUŞTAC: "I see a great potential for mediation in the medium and short term"

Demand for mediation has substantially increased after February 15th, when the new Civil Procedure came into effect, which provides, among other things, the obligation of judges to advise the litigants to participate in the mediation procedure first, as starting on that date, they will be forced to go to a session of information about mediation.

Requests in the mediation sector have increased, especially on the business segment, according to Zeno Şuştac, the vice-president of the Mediation Council, who said that many companies have begun resorting to mediation without being required to. This is also due to the popularization of mediation, which leads both to its acceptance, as well as to awareness about the benefits of this procedure, he said.

"I think that in autumn, we will have a few tens of thousands of mediations. I see a great potential for mediation in the short and medium term. From now on we will be seeing results, we will start picking up momentum, and reaping the fruits of this business".

The hearings set by the courts, which are sometimes months apart, represent a problem in the mediation process, Mr. Şuştac considers.

In his opinion, if 10-15% of the lawsuits were solved through mediation, 470 million Euros could be saved for the state budget, annually.

Zeno Şuştac said that the conclusion of a conference on mediation which was held in Brussels, was that mediation is a solution to be considered by every litigant in the EU, and it is beneficial for potential litigants, for the state, and more.