LEADR South Australian Event

Professor Tania Sourdin examines the changing climate in civil litigation in the light of two recent Bills at the Federal and Victorian State level which propose new obligations for litigants and their representatives in respect of ADR and negotiation.

Tania will explore the draft legislation: the Civil Dispute Resolution Bill 2010 proposed by the Federal Government and Victoria’s Civil Procedure Bill 2010 and their possible impact on ADR professionals and lawyers working in the ADR area.

In addition, Tania will comment on the ADR pledge in Victoria, the rise of the ‘good faith doctrine’ and new requirements for government litigants.

Essentially, each of these changes are part of an ongoing shift from Courts providing or referring litigants to dispute resolution processes, to disputants being required to use dispute resolution processes before court entry is possible.

As a result, ADR is more likely to be provided at a range of levels and at different times both outside and within the Courts.

The legislation has also coincided with significant shifts in terms of judicial understanding of ADR processes and increased requirements to act in a ‘reasonable manner’ that have been imposed upon those engaged in litigation. Increasingly courts are setting new behavioural standards for litigants, would be litigants and their representatives.

These changes will have an impact on ADR practitioners, potential litigants, courts and those involved in collaborative processes.

About Tania Sourdin

Tania Sourdin is a Professor of Conflict Resolution at The University of Queensland and is based in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.

Professor Sourdin has extensive experience in mediation, decisional dispute resolution, conflict resolution, negotiation, commercial litigation and is an active adjudicator who has presided in Courts and Tribunals in a range of positions since 1988. She is a member of National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council which advises the Australian Commonwealth Attorney-General on ADR processes.

Professor Sourdin has led national research projects and produced important recommendations for reform and conducted research into conflict resolution and disputant perceptions in eight courts and four independent conflict schemes. She also has extensive experience in training and educating mediators, investigators, conciliators, tribunal members, judges, architects, lawyers and others in relation to communication, judicial skills, mediation, negotiation and alternative dispute resolution processes.

She has worked across Australia, in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, the United States, the UK, the United Arab Emirates and Italy. As well, Professor Sourdin is the author of books (including Alternative Dispute Resolution, 3rd Edition, Thomson Reuters), articles, papers and has published and presented widely on a range of topics including mediation, conflict resolution, case management, collaborative lawyering, high conflict disputants and organisational change. She is also the editor of the Australasian Dispute Resolution Service published by the Law Book Co.