Chief Justice endorses plan for mediation system

JAKARTA (JP): Chief Justice Soerjono yesterday gave his personal backing to the calls to establish an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system to supplement the courts of law in resolving disputes.

Soerjono in his written speech at a law seminar said the ADR, which proposes the use of mediation to settle out of court, could significantly ease the burden of the Supreme Court in hearing appeal cases.

"The huge amount of backlogged cases at the Supreme Court could be reduced if the lower courts were more selective on cases they try," he said in the speech read by Deputy Chief Justice for State Administrative Courts Th. Ketut Suraputra.

The one-day seminar on the judicial condition was organized by the Legal Aid and Supervision Institute of Golkar (LPPH-Golkar).

Soerjono said that at the last count in March, the Supreme Court had still to clear 15,892 of backlogged cases, consisting of 13,337 appeal cases, 2,436 review cases, and 119 cases awaiting presidential clemency.

The Supreme Court receives 2,000 new cases to hear each year, while its 51 judges can clear just slightly above that rate.

Soerjono admitted that according to article 5 of Law No. 14/1970 of the judicial system, lower courts cannot reject any incoming cases or disputes. "However, judges of the district courts have to attempt to settle cases or disputes amicably during the preliminary examination," he said.

"Efforts to reduce backlog cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution have been proposed," he added.

He said that the mechanism was already recognized by Law No. 14/1970 but it is rarely put into use.

Deputy Attorney General for State Administrative Cases Suhadibroto in his presentation at the seminar said the mechanism has actually been practiced but only informally by the courts chiefly for business disputes.

According to a 1992 survey on business dispute management held by the Center for Legal Studies, 85 percent of the respondents settled their disputes through mediation; another 10 percent took the disputes to arbitration; and the remaining five percent chose to bring their disputes to court.

"The mediation and arbitration approaches have long been practiced by the people. Why shouldn't we institutionalize the organization and mechanism of such practices?" he asked.

The practices could be standardized into a law, so that the dispute settlements through mediation and arbitration are final decisions which are legally binding and should be executed like court rulings.

Erman Radjagukguk, a professor of law at University of Indonesia's post-graduate studies, concurred with Suhadibroto, saying that it is time to implement the ADR system which has long been used in many other countries.

He pointed out some weaknesses of taking disputes to the courts, including the cost in time because of the appeals processes and the high costs.

He said court settlements also leave the losing party with a sour taste.

Erman also called on institutionalizing the alternative dispute resolution system.

"We need a new Civil Law, one that includes mechanism and structural organization for the alternative resolution for disputes," he said.(imn)