by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Tues. May 28, 2024
Twenty-one court-connected mediators were sworn in on Tuesday, May 28, to serve on the roster of the Senior Court, which will be under Chief Justice Hon. Madame Louise Blenman.
These mediators will be appointed cases by judges to create a resolution/settlement. Each mediator will be added to a list, and persons will be allowed to freely choose the mediator with whom they want to conduct the mediation.
All mediators are neutral parties, and once the dispute has reached an agreement, a settlement becomes an order for the court.
“Mediation is such an important process in the judicial system. It’s really about parties coming together that can find a common ground to perhaps [agree] to something that they may have a conflict in. One of the things that we know that happened in the court system, is that there’s a lot of backlog of civil cases. And so, when a judge [decides] for a civil matter to be referred to mediation, then the mediators are the ones [who] would take a case. Litigants are involved, also known as attorneys. And before it can go to litigation, it should go through mediation. So, the success rate of our mediators in the system is important,” said Consuelo Godfrey, Ex-President of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Association of Belize.
“When you go through a litigation process, your attorneys speak on your behalf; but in the mediation process, the parties get a chance to speak. The parties get a chance to see how they feel or how they see their side of the conflict. And so, a mediator’s role is one of facilitation and empathy, and having good training,” she added.
Over a decade ago, the first group of mediators was sworn in and saw the birth of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Association of Belize, formerly known as the Belize Court Connected Mediators, with 52 inductees. However, since 2013, no mediators were sworn in. Godfrey noted that the association plans to swear in another group of mediators after this summer.
“There were times when the journey was so empty, so quiet, and we thought we were going to die, sort of got frustrated along the process, feeling as if though like nothing is going to happen,” said sworn-in mediator, Diane Finnegan. “It’s truly an honor … This is something that I’ve been doing all along when I was working with the gangs, you know … My work [daily] with young people, empowering, motivating young people, going into schools and just sort of encouraging young people on a whole, on how to journey through this challenging life, and doing it in a way that there’s no division, no disunity among them, but understanding each other as human beings,” she added.
The 21 mediators received training from Julianne Ellis Bradley, a University of the West Indies professor.