News | Your Legal Rights

In May some changes were made to Rule 70, 71, 73,- 79 of the Magistrates Court Rules.

Those section (and some others to do with court annexed mediation) were updated and repealing 80 -85, 87 & 88.

As a reminder to anyone facing litigation (or submitting legal docs) court papers must clarify if you have been offered and/or accepted mediation (which would need to be officially accepted on a special form and be concluded within 30 days during which time the normal x number of days to handle matters is paused).

If one or both parties feel mediation won’t work, they need to justify why that is the case in their papers. But during a court case you can specifically ask for mediation instead (this will pause the case).

So, if you receive a summons then you can rather ask for mediation and avoid the heavy costs of court (but remember you need to pay for the mediation 50/50).