By Frank Laney

Although mediation has strong societal values, mediation could be a very valuable and powerful tool to help the courts of Ukraine.  The Ukrainian court system is and has been going through a crisis.  Confidence in its fairness, objectivity, and impartiality is very low among Ukrainian citizens.  But at the same time, the courts are underfunded and overworked.  Many judges have more cases to handle and decide in a year than is humanly possible (over 350 cases per year per judge).  Although not a panacea, mediation may be helpful in building public confidence in the courts while also relieving the case load stress.  (Research in Maryland courts showed that in mediated cases the impression of the court’s fairness increased over cases that did not go to mediation.)

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