26th July, 2016
Director, CMC, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Odusanya disclosed this on Monday when Law students from the Lagos State University, LASU visited the centre at the Tollgate, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
Odusanya said the CMC had continued to explore the option of mediation to resolve civil cases in Lagos rather than allow the people to slug it out in court.
The CMC director, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Ololade Williams stated that the centre recovered the N218.7 million on behalf of its clients from companies and other parties through mediation.
She said the current administration of Akinwunmi Ambode placed more emphasis on mediation as an integral part of Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, and challenged the law students to embrace ADR practice.
“The Law students should embrace ADR with open mind because of the so many advantages derivable from it. Lawyers think they won’t be able to make much money from ADR; they should have open mind towards ADR because it is the fastest way lawyers could get their fees,” she said.
Odusanya also said one of the challenges being faced by the centre was that of funding as it related to being able to train skilled mediators, adding that “we have challenges to meet up with the best practices.
“We also have staffing challenge as we need more mediators to cope with the increasing demand for mediation. We need people with more exposure to cope with the demand.”
Head of Chamber, Justice Chamber, LASU, Monsurat Alashe said 56 law students from 100 to 500 level visited the CMC to be acquainted with the practice of ADR.
“Our aim of coming was to introduce the law students to the best practice of arbitration, mediation and litigation. By the time we get out of school, we don’t just want to go to court but to be able to resolve cases through mediation,” she said.
She added that the chamber had organized internship programmes and tutorials for the students so that they could acquire practical skills in law practice.