MEDIATION WITH OUR OWN COLLEAGUES Cooperation between courts
MEDIATION WITH OUR OWN COLLEAGUES? Cooperation between courts, prosecutors and mediators Borbala Fellegi, Ph. D. Foresee Research Group, Hungary Mediation Conference, Warsaw 4 December 2009
SOME FACTS & FIGURES l Legislative framework for VOM since 2007 l National VOM service provided by the Probation Service’s trained mediators l Scope: traffic, violent and property crimes up to 5 yrs of imprisonment; adults – juveniles l Referral agencies: prosecutors (80%) and judges (20%) l Approx. 3000 cases/year; (1, 5% of all criminal cases) l juvenile cases: 12% l Agreement rate: 80%; 91% of the agreements are fulfilled; l Satisfaction: above 90% l Financial reparation: more than 1 million EUR (2007) All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010.
What did prosecutors and judges think of VOM and RJ before its implementation? Research from 2007 Common language ? Language of the restorative approach All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010. Language of the CJS
(Some) main findings of the research l Importance of the micro level (attitudes, personalities) l Officials rather than law-makers l Punishment is not equal with facing consequences l The ‘ideal sanctioning system’ is compatible with RJ principles l Giving power back to the parties can be acceptable l The importance of clients’ personal feedback to the legal practitioners All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010.
Communication on the systemic level STRENGTHS • Multisectoral operation • Nation-wide • Legitimacy • Adult, juveniles • Not only diversion • Basic principles • “Learning by seeing” WEAKNESSES SWOT OPPORTUNITIES • Joint trainings • Learning by seeing • Change in attitudes • Good results • Inefficiency of the traditional CJS • Multi-agency cooperation • International exchange THREATS • No preparation before future reforms • Diverse interests, attitudes, • Weaknesses don’t change personalities in the judiciary • Routinized practice • Lack of knowledge and understanding • Lack of info-sharing and awareness • Offender and material focus raising • Top-down mistrust • Power-games, jealousy, fear or losing over-regulation, high discretion and competency exclusion in referrals, competency-clash • Penal populism All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010.
Communication between the judiciary and the mediators – individual level All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010.
What do we expect from a client in mediation? • security • giving and requesting feedback • self-esteem • ability to self-criticism • responsibility-taking; • giving another chance • honesty • communication skills • articulation of own needs • belief in the win-win outcome • trust • openness Do we represent these and trust towards an principles • taking care of others impartial mediator • recognising, listening and in our daily • work reflection to the principles with each other? understanding the other side • cooperation, partnership All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010. • supporting others in making amends
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Borbala Fellegi All rights reserved. Foresee Research Group 2010. Executive director Foresee Research Group borbala. fellegi@foresee. hu www. fellegi. hu www. foresee. hu
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