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It is my honour to witness the establishment of the Institute of Mediators (hereinafter “the Institute”). As the founding President, my first and immediate task is to relieve those who are upset by being involved into legal proceedings from distress. It is because over the past 16 years of my legal career I have witnessed that in some civil proceedings the legal costs of which are far higher than what the actual amount claimed by the parties. In addition to that, it usually takes a few years to get a matter to trial. At that time, mediation was not an integral part of pre-trial procedures so for those who were keen to settle the matters out of court “were forced” to appear before the bench.
The thought of setting up the Institute, apart from the reason given above, is derived from my observation that mediation services providers in Hong Kong are not able to fully and completely satisfy the disputants’ needs or demands. A typical scenario is that they may not be able to find a right person who has specific knowledge to deal with specific matters. This is the niche which the Institute has found in providing unique mediation services. Therefore, the existence of the Institute is not to substitute any mediation services provider in Hong Kong.
The Institute wishes to train accredited mediators in Hong Kong through top-up classes so as to enhance their expertise in certain specialized areas and as a result giving the disputants one more option and one more chance to settle their disputes.
Besides, in the foreseeable future, we will be devoted ourselves to implement the Institute’s objectives by liaising with local and overseas government departments (including public sectors) and mediation organizations, visiting the communities and organizing seminars etc. so as to promote and educate the public the advantages of mediation and serve our community.
Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to the support by both Vice-Presidents, Dr. Alex Lau and Mr. Ferris Lee, with whose participation I strongly believe that the Institute could do even better and provide rather higher quality of trainings and mediation services.
CHAN Shui Hung
President, Institute of Mediators
10th February 2014 |
