Law to regulate civil cases

JAKARTA: The Supreme Court is close to issuing a regulation on the establishment of a mediation body to settle civil cases out of court in a bid to reduce the backlog of appeal cases filed with the court.

Justice Abdurrahman Saleh announced on Thursday that the new body would provide registered mediators to handle cases.

"The court has started training mediator candidates (for the pilot project). They will conduct comparative studies in Asia, particularly in Singapore, in the near future," he said.

Saleh said conflicting parties must cooperate to choose a mediator to assist them in settling their disputes.

In the U.S., he said, some 70 percent of civil cases filed with the court were resolved out of court.

The Supreme Court has complained that its 37 justices were insufficient to handle the 13,000 appeal cases a year. -- JP