Mediation expert, Barr. Valentino Buoro has enumerated the advantages of embracing the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as against the frequently used litigation in the maritime business as an international business bound by time.
Speaking with our correspondent in Lagos, Barr. Buoro maintained that Alternative Dispute Resolution is very useful where there are so many people, so many issues, ongoing concerns or relationships adding that if people have to go to court on every issue, the international trade would not function well, foreign investments would not flow well because foreign investors are always scared about litigation.
“This is because they don’t know your laws, your laws are different from their laws but they are more comfortable with mediation or arbitration where reasoning comes to play, which are not based on the laws of any country but on what the parties have decided to do.
“Most international businesses have arbitration as a clause, that when you have any dispute, you should take it to arbitration and not to court. That was when arbitration was holding sway but now arbitration has become so legalized that it is beginning to also delay. So, some businesses are now stepping down to mediation, where they fail in mediation before they go to arbitration.
“Even as I speak, mediation may not answer every problem but when you have come into mediation, you understand each other better, so that when you now go to litigation, you would have streamlined the issues for litigation, you would have agreed on some because litigation can be a decision on some other issues that have not been totally agreed”, he said.
Asked to quantify in monetary terms, how much is lost in litigation in matters relating to the maritime business, he said,” When you are trying to quantify, they say time is money; can you truly quantify what you are losing by having extended challenges in court? I am not saying that litigation is not good but litigation should be used minimally where parties cannot see eyeball to eyeball, as a last resort. Commerce is about human relationships, commerce is about the creativity of those who are involved, you do not need a lawyer to urge you to enter into any contract, you have seen a business prospect which will be attractive to you.
“So, when challenges occur, you have two options as at today; either to resolve it amicably through the ADR or to go to litigation. Litigations are technical, they take a longer time and then only one party will win and when one party wins, the other party loses. So, where for instance you go to litigation, you cannot really focus on the advancement of your business because you have that baggage that you must resolve.
“So, the time of the Chief Executive is taken, the time of your legal executive is taken, certain operations of the organization will be disrupted because key officials are in court, production is in a way affected on both sides. How do you quantify that? You are not looking at the financials; you are not looking at the out of pocket expenses of each party, we even looking at the cost to the economy. Why do you think that the Federal Government in its own wisdom has amended the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and then created an ADR centre for the National Industrial Court?
“The National Industrial Court is the first court in Nigeria which was specifically provided with a clause or a provision in the constitution to set up ADR centres because the nation cannot afford to continuing litigations and stoppage of work, so also in other areas of business. When you are in litigation, nothing works at its optimum. Mediation takes a shorter time, mediation brings in the wisdom of the people in that industry. If it is going to a loss, we share the loss but again, as we say in mediation, you can expand the tie, you can based on this dispute, come up with new ideas.
“So, if you ask about cost, sure, there is a lot of cost to the maritime industry and to even the Nigerian economy because this cost will be built and when they are built up, those who are acquiring the cost at the first level will build that cost into what you and I buy in the market. At the end of the day, it is you and I that pay for that”.
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