A three-way agreement, between the judges of the Courts of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 and Number 3 of Passion fruitthe Bar Association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the City Council of Granadilla de Abona, has enabled the first mediation service to be set up in the South for judicial proceedings already underway, with the aim of promoting conflict resolution through the figure of a third person and thus alleviate the workload of the aforementioned courts.
The service is applied in cases in which the judge considers that the parties can explore a solution through this channel in family litigation (divorce, alimony, guardianship and custody, among others), conflicts between neighbors (disputes over boundaries of land, mostly) and other minor criminal offenses.
The procedure is simple: the opposing parties meet in the presence of their lawyers and the mediator, and if they reach an agreement, the written document is signed so that it can later be approved by the judge. Unlike mediation to avoid legal proceedings, this procedure is aimed at those conflicts that have already started their journey through the courts.
The project, which has been underway since April, is subsidized by the Department of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, and the Municipality of Granadilla de Abona, which has transferred some dependencies of the Social Services area to hold meetings between the parties and the person in charge of exercising the mediation function. The availability of the premises allows extending the schedule of the sessions in the afternoon.
The deputy dean of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Bar Association, Mila Pacheco, thanked the judges of the Courts of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 and Number 3 of Granadilla, as well as the Mayor José Domingo Regalado and the Government of the Canary Islands, for their willingness. to move the project forward.
In addition, he highlighted the advantages of this procedure, which is becoming increasingly important in resolving conflicts, in addition to easing the workload of one of the judicial districts that accumulates the greatest delay in the province of Tenerife and has significant infrastructure limitations. .
Finally, he recalled that people interested in the mediation procedure can contact the Bar Association and request this service.
