CONCILIATORY MEDIATION

ECOVIS Miškinis, Kvainauskas ir partneriai advokatų kontora

(continued from last issue)

Basic principles of the mediation practice are: impartiality, professional conduct and responsibility. Conciliatory mediation is a confidential process. Unless parties to a dispute agree otherwise, the parties to the dispute, mediators and administrators of conciliatory mediation services shall hold all information regarding conciliatory mediation and related issues in strict confidentiality.

Parties to a dispute shall agree on the nature and procedure of conciliatory mediation by indicating a preferred set of rules or establishing individual rules for conciliatory mediation subject to mutual agreement. Where there is no agreement between parties to a dispute on the nature and procedure of conciliatory mediation, or where an agreement between the parties to the dispute does not establish specific actions to be taken by a mediator, the mediator shall duly perform specific actions, taking into consideration the circumstances of the dispute, including a potential strength imbalance between the parties to the dispute, requests from the parties to the dispute and a need of speedy resolution of the dispute, and acting in compliance with legal acts.

Any party to a dispute can withdraw from conciliatory mediation without indicating reasons for withdrawal. This shall not prevent the parties to the dispute from repeatedly agreeing to resolve the dispute by way of conciliatory mediation.
Successful conciliatory mediation is completed by a conciliation agreement. A conciliation agreement entered into in the course of conciliatory mediation shall be subject to the requirements set forth in the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania and other legal acts. A conciliation agreement entered into by parties to a dispute in the course of conciliatory mediation shall have a statutory effect on the parties to the dispute.

Upon commencement of conciliatory mediation, reduced periods of limitation shall be suspended. Where conciliatory mediation terminates without entering into a conciliation agreement, a reduced period of limitation shall continue. Thereby conciliatory mediation is a non-judicial dispute resolution procedure. Parties in this process play an important role.