Conflict diagnosis
Judicial decisions do not always solve the conflict at hand. In order to determine the most appropriate method of conflict resolution it is important to make the right "diagnosis”. The following questions (based on Euwema 2006) can serve as a guideline:
Method of conflict resolution
In order to get the necessary support for the method of conflict resolution, it is important to make the decision for the method of conflict resolution (also) the responsibility of the conflict parties. This is an important task of the referrer. The referrer can be a judge, a (legal) counselor, a human resource manager in a company or a confidential advisor within a public of private organization, et cetera. Referrers can be more or less forceful in their referring style. Ideally, a conversation between the referrer and the conflict parties evolves in which parties voice their expectations of a good solution to their problem and discuss how various conflict resolution methods might help them.
Conflict resolution
In order to guide the process of arriving at the most appropriate method of conflict resolution, the conflict manager (for example a judge or a mediator) needs to:
Customized conflict resolution within the Netherlands judiciary
Over the last ten years, referral to mediation by the Netherlands judiciary has been firmly established within the Netherlands judiciary. Among the judiciary, mediation is now seen as a regular, "normal” means of dispute resolution. This has opened the way to ‘customized conflict resolution’, or stated differently: tailor-made solutions that address the underlying issues of legal disputes. Customized conflict resolution implies that judges determine, together with the litigants, the most appropriate way of conflict resolution: adjudication, judicially supervised settlement agreements or mediation.
So in the end, the launch of court-connected mediation has had a far greater effect on the Netherlands judiciary than the introduction of the referral services as such: it has led to new thinking about the role and tasks of judges in court procedures.