The mediation service to resolve proceedings already initiated in the courts has begun to be provided, for the first time, in the Arona Investigating Court Number 1, which will contribute to reducing litigation in one of the busiest courts in the south of the Isla, which, by handling only criminal matters (unlike the mixed courts, where civil matters are also investigated and tried), can only refer trials for minor crimes to the mediation service.
Intrajudicial mediation is applied in those cases in which the judge considers that the parties can explore a solution through the figure of a third person in family disputes (divorces, alimony and custody, among others), conflicts between neighbors (border disputes, above all) and other minor criminal offences. It is, as judicial sources underline, a tool that represents a new model for resolving conflicts through “more personalized, humane and agile” attention.
In addition to the implementation of this resource in Arona, this newspaper was able to confirm that it has also been reestablished in Granadilla de Abona, the first point in the South where it began to be applied, to alleviate the burden of an overwhelmed judicial district and on the brink of collapse. Judicial operators and citizens had been demanding its continuity in courts number 2 and number 3 for months, after being suspended once the budget granted by the Government of the Canary Islands was exhausted at the end of November.
Serve as an example of the effectiveness of this service that, while it was in force for seven months last year, trials for minor crimes were updated. The figures speak for themselves: of the 42 cases submitted to mediation in criminal matters, 35 agreements were reached, representing a success rate of 83%. In addition, the time elapsed since the referral was made until the parties were summoned did not exceed 15 days. In some cases, disputes that had been pending for more than 15 years were settled.
The first point in the South of intrajudicial mediation -so called because it deals with procedures already initiated in the courts- began to function in April 2022 at the initiative of the Bar Association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in collaboration with the Courts of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 and Number 3 of Granadilla, the Government of the Canary Islands and the southern city council. Judicial operators also value the climate of cooperation that mediation generates and, above all, the savings in resources and effort that it entails for the Administration of Justice.
The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has also recognized the effectiveness of this initiative. The Government Chamber of the TSJC agreed on March 24 to issue an “express recognition to the Bar Association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the work carried out in the judicial district of Granadilla de Abona through the mediation service.”
The Vice Dean of the Bar Association, Mila Pacheco, highlighted the human and professional quality of the team of mediators, “attributes that have translated into outstanding results, which gives us full confidence that the service will continue to expand and improve in the future.”
