The first mediation point in the South for legal proceedings that have already started, in service since last April 8 in Granadilla de Abona, is proving to be a success. This is evidenced by the data provided to this newspaper by the Bar Association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, creator, together with the Courts of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 and Number 3 of Granadilla, the Government of the Canary Islands and the City Council of Granadilla of this service aimed at promoting conflict resolution through the figure of a third person in order to alleviate the workload of the aforementioned courts.
It must be remembered that the service is applied in cases in which the judge considers that the parties can explore a solution through this channel in family disputes (divorce, alimony, guardianship and custody, among others), conflicts between neighbors (disputes over land boundaries, mostly) and other minor criminal offenses.
In three months, 74 cases have been referred to the Mediation Center of the Tenerife Bar Association, between criminal (37), civil (29) and family (8) proceedings, in many cases reaching agreements that led to the withdrawal of the complaint or, in the civil sphere, partial or total agreements on the different points on which the conflict dealt.
Regarding family procedures, four were referred to the Mediation Center of the Government of the Canary Islands and as many others were addressed in the first information session.
Sources from the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Bar Association indicated that all of the users who have relied on mediation as an alternative to solving their conflicts were in favor of recommending the service and stated that, if they had known about it before, they would have resorted to it. before filing the complaint or lawsuit.
