The national mediation and reconciliation project to resolve a dispute prior to the rendering of a final decision by the trial court, being carried out by the Ministry of Justice to reduce the accumulation of court cases, has reached advanced stages, Minister of Justice Dr. Muhammad Bin Abdul Kareem Al-Issa said Tuesday. Dr. Al-Issa made the statement during his inspection tour of Jeddah courts. The Ministry of Justice is seeking the help and experience of retired judges to have cases settled out of court. Earlier, the Ministry of Justice announced that the mediation and reconciliation system would be legally binding and it will be the mediators' responsibility to refer cases to the concerned courts. Al-Issa said the system has proved its effectiveness at the rate of 90 in the Western court system and 40 percent in the Arab court system, attributing the discrepancy between the two rates to the variable binding to the out-of-court settlement system. In his field inspection tour of rented judiciary buildings in Jeddah, including the District Court for Guarantees and Marriage Contracts, the First and Second Notary Public Offices in northern and southern Jeddah, Al-Issa admitted that their construction conditions and layout are “not suitable for a justice institution.” He said those buildings were rented because there is scarcity of land of suitable size and location for courts, but it is a temporary “transitional phase that precedes construction of a headquarters building”. Al-Issa said the ministry will soon announce an integrated plan to set up “justice buildings for the courts and notary-public offices according to the latest international specifications.” Meanwhile, Al-Issa hailed the “very low and pleasant” divorce cases that form only a 2 percent of marriage contracts signed annually by Saudi nationals. This percentage is far lower than the percentage of divorce cases registered before the mediation and reconciliation system was created. President of the Second Notary Public Office Muhammad Al-Amer said his office registered the highest average work output in the Kingdom, with 15,668 title deeds processed in one year, and the highest percentage of work in the region, 31.7 percent, according to Ministry of Justice statistics.
