Prepare legal practitioners to be effective mediators
About the course
This ten-day course deals specifically with civil mediation. Past experience has shown that mediation is a growing area of legal specialisation and, when used appropriately, can offer a valuable approach to reduce the time and costs of litigation. Whether you wish to practise as a mediator or be in a position to advise your clients or represent them at mediations, you will benefit greatly from attending the course.
Introduction
With the formal introduction of Court-Annexed Mediation, it is in the interest of legal practitioners to familiarise themselves with the process and techniques of mediation.
LEAD’s mediation courses are primarily designed to prepare legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners to be mediators and to advise clients on the mediation process. When designing the course content, the Standards for Civil Mediation were considered.
Course presentation
Success in today’s legal environment requires mastering a variety of techniques to help clients achieve a cost-effective solution to their disputes. The course presenters are experienced, practising mediators and the teaching methodology will essentially be learning-by-doing, which will include working through case studies. The training is intensive and demanding and requires hard work and dedication. This course is presented in English only.
Outline of programme
General introduction to mediation and legal background | Basic civil procedure pre-workshop assignment | Mediation in the South African context | A study of the Court-Annexed Mediation rules | The mediation process principles, stages and methodology of mediation | Role and function of the mediator | Conflict management | Essential skills in negotiation | Adversarial processes | Social-context and diversity awareness | Taking control of the mediation process | Dealing with people and building rapport | Communication and diplomacy | Gaining an understanding of the problems | Confidentiality, privacy and reporting obligations | Neutrality and impartiality | Drafting agreements at the end of the process | Skills required in moving towards a solution that satisfies the needs of the parties, and | Practical skills to conduct a mediation process.
Accreditation
The LSSA has provisionally been accredited by the Dispute Settlement Accreditation Council (DiSAC) for general commercial mediation standard training. NOTE: DiSAC is only extending provisional accreditation for this training course as it is in the process of finalising a more detailed assessment process.
