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Community Mediation Centre (Subordinate Courts) Official Opening
Posted on Friday, July 15, 2005 - 12:00 AM

The Community Mediation Centre (CMC) at the Subordinate Courts was officially launched by Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Law and Home Affairs Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee and witnessed by Senior District Judge Mr Richard Magnus on Fri, 15 July 2005. The opening address of the SMS is reproduced.

Introduction

This new Community Mediation Centre is the result of a year-long collaborative effort between Minlaw's Community Mediation Unit and the Subordinate Courts. The facility first commenced operations on a pilot basis in May 2004. Its main focus is to handle referrals from Magistrates pursuant to section 15 of the Community Mediation Centres Act.

2. Previously, under section 15, Magistrates could only order cases to the CMCs if both parties gave consent. Section 15 was amended with effect from 3rd May 2004 to give Magistrates greater powers to require parties to go for mediation, without requiring their consent. Hence, with this amendment, Magistrates now have full discretion to order parties to go to the CMCs for mediation, when they consider that to be appropriate.

CMC Facility at Subordinate Courts

3. This Court is now a one-stop dispute resolution centre. With co-location of the CMC at the same premises as the Subordinate Courts, disputants now have immediate access to a CMC facility when a Magistrate refers them for mediation. In this way, there is now greater synergy between the community mediation service and the Court referral process, thus providing greater convenience to disputants who now need not go to another venue for mediation.

4. Since its commencement, this facility has been operating on Mondays and Thursdays on a pilot basis. Thus far, the facility has handled more than 200 mediations. In the first half of this year, it conducted more than 80 mediation sessions with a success rate of 75 per cent.

5. I would like to share with you a typical case of noise disturbance referred by the Magistrate which was successfully resolved at this facility.

6. The complainant, Party A, alleged that his neighbour, Party B, had been causing noise disturbance in the early hours of the morning for the past year. He claimed that the noise was unbearable. The dispute was mediated at this facility and when the parties talked things over, they resolved their differences amicably. An agreement was reached that Party B would not do housework in the middle of the night, nor drag furniture around the house. Both Party A and Party B agreed to live harmoniously with each other.

7. Since May last year, we have seen many such cases successfully resolved through mediation at this facility. We feel the time is now ripe to launch this facility into full scale operations along the lines of the other CMCs. In addition to Magistrates? referrals, this facility will now be open for mediation to other members of the public from Mondays to Fridays during normal office hours and 8.30am to 1pm on Saturdays.

8. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise a group of selected experienced mediators who have been faithfully serving here during this pilot phase. Their contributions at this facility are over and above their normal load of mediations done at our other mediation centres. I thank them for going the extra mile. Please continue to serve with honour and passion.

Importance and Relevance of Community Mediation/Conclusion

9. Community mediation has come a long way since we set up our first Centre in Marine Parade. With this new CMC facility, we now have four main CMCs and seven satellite mediation venues, manned by a pool of dedicated volunteer mediators. Significantly, we now have a community mediation service located with the Courts? premises to immediately handle cases that have escalated to the Courts, which hopefully will amicably resolve their problems.

10. We have also worked with frontline agencies such as HDB, police and grassroots organisations to refer appropriate disputants to try mediation at the CMCs as a first resort. Indeed, as Singapore society develops, we must have adequate social and community based structures to deal with day to day relational conflicts and tensions that arise.

11. It is my ardent hope that over time, more Singaporeans will use mediation as an avenue of first resort to resolve their various community and social disputes. In this regard, we thank the Courts, and especially Senior District Judge, Mr Richard Magnus, for their support and partnership with us in this community effort.

12. Thank you.

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