Draft mediation bill struck out

Due to a lack of support, the Minister for Legal Protection, Sander Dekker, is withdrawing the draft bill on mediation. Many of the involved parties, for example, question the usefulness and necessity of a legal register for mediators. Furthermore, the proposal would place too much emphasis on regulation and too little on promoting mediation.

During roundtable meetings with mediation organizations and other stakeholders, there appeared to be insufficient support for the bill, Dekker wrote (pdf, 152 kB) to the House of Representatives. The Royal Dutch Association of Civil-Law Notaries (KNB), which is collaborating on this issue with the specialist association Association of Mediators in the Notary Profession (VMN), was also unenthusiastic about the chosen approach. The requirements for civil-law notaries to be included in the register for mediators remained unclear. Furthermore, civil-law notaries who are also mediators would face additional burdens due to all the required registrations. They would also be faced with the overlap between notarial disciplinary law and the proposed right to lodge a complaint.

Quality
The Royal Netherlands Bar Association (KNB) and the Netherlands Association of Mediators (VMN) still want to legally regulate mediation. This could safeguard the legal quality of the final element of a successful mediation, the settlement agreement. A law could also better regulate the right to remain confidential: a civil-law notary currently has this right, but a mediator does not. Finally, a law could help clarify matters surrounding the overlapping roles of civil-law notary and mediator. For example, if a civil-law notary conducts mediation and there are complaints about this, complaints could only be filed with the mediation disciplinary court.

Additional measures
Now that the draft bill has been rejected, Dekker is exploring other ways to further simulate mediation and other forms of accessible dispute resolution. In the coming period, he will be exploring which additional measures could help.