COMMERCIAL MEDIATION: AN EFFECTIVE POST-COVID-19 TOOL

Hoche Avocats – Commercial Department Newsletter – May, 2020
Link to the Newsletter

Commercial Litigation: An effective post-Covid-19 tool
The Covid-19 crisis has aggravated an already very slow judicial situation, due to a lack of means and despite the efforts of the parties involved. During the crisis, the courts rightly favoured cases affecting individuals. The situation of companies, faced with their judicial needs, is now very much impacted even though they may face major difficulties, despite protective measures taken by ordinance.

A FACT: COURTS WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT TO LOWER  THE DELAYS

The Covid-19 crisis put most of the judicial activity on hold, already heavily impacted by the strikes that followed one another prior to this exceptional situation. Despite the efforts of judges and court officers, mainly in the area of personal rights, delays have accumulated. Poorly equipped due to a lack of enough resources, the judiciary will take time to recover from this crisis, even if it tries to abolish oral argument hearings. In Paris, the Judicial Tribunal and the Court of Appeal gave lawyers 15 days from 23 and 27 April 2020 to decide whether they refused or accepted that their files should simply be filed, without pleadings. Without even discussing this process, which any lawyer can only question even for written proceedings, this will not be enough to absorb the pre-Covid-19 delays, the delays created by this crisis and the postCovid-19 unsatisfied demands of litigants.

A FLEXIBLE TOOL : MEDIATION

Mediation allows the parties to attempt to resolve their divergences with the help of a neutral, independent, impartial, trained, non-coercive third party, based on solutions they find between themselves or with the help of third parties in order to sign an agreement, if possible, immediately enforceable. It combines confidentiality, flexibility, deadlines, costs, pragmatism (“business” solution), creativity of solutions, limitation of uncertainty, efficiency in execution, etc.
Read more