OYO AG ADR COMMENT: ITS ILLEGAL FOR LAWYERS TO ENJOY ADR ALONE- Aborisade

Mr. Femi Aborisade

Reaction had trailed the opinion of the Honorable attorney General and Commissioner for Justice,Oyo State, Mr. Oluseun Abimbola on his recent
opinion, where he advocated for the need for lawyers to tap from the opportunities available through Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism which is the emerging phase of the legal profession, so that legal practitioners would have more jobs. He also made case for the need to institutionalise the process of Alternative Dispute Resolution through the enabling law, so that Legal Practitioners whose main call to livelihood is case management and advocacy will be frontrunners in the entire process.

In his reaction, the Human Right activists and legal practitioner, Mr. Femi Aborisade kicks against the legality of such statement and issued the following release:

"The recent explanatory exchange between Mr Richarmond and the Hon. AG has motivated this input. 

"While appreciating the development of the Multidoor court house in Oyo State and the need to establish standards and participation by qualified and skilled professionals, i wish to advise against restricting participation to persons who are certified to have been trained by recognized ADR bodies. Restricting participation to formally trained ADR practitioners will appear to me to amount to merely creating business for some certificating bodies.

" Being certified should only be an advantage to those who are so certified in terms of being likely to be preferred for hiring by disputing parties. 

"The qualification as a lawyer ought to be sufficient for recognising lawyers as good and skillful enough. 

"Even non lawyers without any certificate in ADR should not be discriminated against.

 "The disputing parties who hire professionals should be allowed to float or sink by the level of skill of their professionals.  

"We should not do anything that would disturb freedom to be heard in court or out of court, judicial or non judicial bodies, as provided under section 36(1) of the Constitution. Litigation is the most technical of judicial sittings. Litigants are free to hire or not to hire lawyers to conduct their case. Please, no government at any level should toy with taking away basic constitutional and universal freedoms in the bid to promote certain professional bodies or practitioners.

 "Many SANs participate in ADR processes just as many retired judges participate in ADR processes,  without any formal certificates in ADR. Would such be disqualified from participating in the Multidoor court house because they are not certificated? I know there are many lawyers who are not SANs today, not because they are not qualified, but because of the politics involved. 

"Would the Oyo State Multidoor court house accept SANs and refuse more experienced lawyers who are not SANs? Uniform policies should be developed that do not permit discretions.  

"People, including lawyers, should be encouraged to develop themselves, develop their skills to be competitive.

" But no attempt should be made by lawyers to devalue their own profession.

 "If the curriculum for training lawyers is deficient in the light of current developments, the curriculum could be further developed. By the way, many resource persons in some of the certificating bodies do not possess any prior certificate in ADR training.  Many persons today are skillful on the computer than certificated computer scientists.

" De-emphasise possession of formal certificates in ADR training before lawyers or anybody at all can participate in the Oyo State Multidoor court house. ADR idea in itself is not a new invention.

" It is an attempt to tap into traditional, non formal ways of resolving disputes. Formalizing possession of certificates is s corruption of the idea of ADR.

 "In other words, it is informed more by the concern to commercialize dispute resolution.

 "Certification does not guarantee being skillful in ADR processes in practice.  The Trade Disputes Act provides for ADR processes. That law does not limit participation to certificated practitioners.

" I know parties hire lawyers and non lawyers as their consultants in the process. 

"Conciliators appointed by the Hon Minister of Labour are usually neither lawyers nor certificated ADR practitioners.  

" I have been involved in the practice of ADR since the early 1980s. I'll be involved in another one next week in resolving trade disputes between s set of workers and s state government. For those who may think I'm objecting because I'm not certificated, i possess a certificate in ADR training." He said.

We give all for Benefits...