I am pleased to release this report on the Family Mediation Pilot. Many people have contributed to the pilot and I would like to thank you all, especially the families who participated, in making it a success.
Family Mediation was developed in response to the Law Commission’s 2003 report Dispute Resolution in the Family Court. The Law Commission was keen to see greater use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in the Family Court. It is against this background that the Ministry sought funding in Budget 2004 to pilot the use of lay mediators in the Family Court.
Readers will note that Family Mediation was highly successful at resolving the types of family disputes that were referred to it. Also, importantly, the overwhelming majority of Family Mediation participants found the experience to be positive and empowering.
Non-judge led mediation is a feature of family courts in many foreign jurisdictions. The Family Court of Australia has offered it for many years, and there has been strong interest in seeing it introduced to New Zealand.
Decisions about the future of family mediation remain to be taken; however, this report makes an important contribution to debates about the role of alternative dispute resolution in the New Zealand Family Court.
Belinda Clark
Secretary for Justice