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The Launch of the Singapore Mediation Centre
The Judiciary has been and will continue to be supportive
of mediation, said the Honourable the Chief Justice at the
official launch of the Singapore Mediation Centre ("SMC")
on 16 August 1997. Mediation will be here to stay. For the
legal profession, he urged lawyers to see themselves as being
in the business of providing a whole array of dispute resolution
services, including mediation-related services.
The SMC is the flagship mediation centre in Singapore which
will provide a comprehensive range of mediation services for
civil disputes of all nature. This flagship centre will take
the lead in promoting and supporting the mediation movement
here. A paradigm shift that is envisioned is mediation being
employed as one of the first options in dispute resolution.
Litigation will be resorted to only in the minority of cases
where mediation is not suitable.
Gracing the SMC launch was the Guest-of-Honour, Minister
for Law Professor S Jayakumar. Other guests included Minister
of State for Law, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, the Honourable
Attorney General Chan Sek Keong, all Judges and Judicial Commissioners
of the Supreme Court, prominent members of the legal and other
professional fraternities. There were also many distinguished
representatives from the government departments and other
trade bodies.
The launch of the SMC came at the conclusion of a successful
pilot project. The SMC has established links with a number
of renowned ADR institutions overseas and entered into MOUs
with 9 local organisations for the use of the SMC’s services.
The Singapore IT Mediation Centre has also been absorbed by
the SMC with effect from 16 August 1997.
The speech of the Chief Justice was followed by a certificate
presentation ceremony. The Honourable Justice Goh Joon Seng,
the Chairman of the SMC presented about 50 certificates to
persons who have been trained and hand-picked for accreditation
and appointment to the Panel of SMC Mediators. This Panel
is a multi-disciplinary one and comprises 6 Senior Counsel
and persons of standing in the legal and many other professions
and industries. The engineers, accountants, quantity surveyors,
bankers, high ranking civil servants, lawyers on the Panel
bring with them invaluable expertise from their respective
fields.
The SMC is currently working with the Conflict Management
Group, a Harvard affiliated Alternative Dispute Resolution
("ADR") institution, LEADR of Australia and CEDR
of England to plan for courses to train mediators and participants
at mediation and other ADR processes.
Read the Speech delivered by
the CJ at the lauch.
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