The Spanish preliminary Draft Law on mediation approved

31.01.2019

Last January 11, the Council of Ministers approved the Draft Law aimed to promote mediation, which will change its voluntary nature to obligatory. Parties in dispute will have to attend a mandatory informative and exploratory session during the six months prior to the filing of the lawsuit in an assessed number of matters. 

The aim is to accelerate and reduce the costs of the parties (the presence of a lawyer or solicitor is not required), as well as alleviate the workload of the courts. This out-of-court mediation will be taken as a necessary step to access the judicial route. However, this will not imply an obligation to undergo a complete mediation process or to reach an agreement that puts an end to the litigation.

The matters subject to the obliged mediation procedure are framed within civil and commercial matters and are characterized by responding to conflicts arising from personal or commercial relationships sustained over time. These matters are:

  1. Measures taken to implement a declaration of nullity of marriage, separation, divorce; or those relating to the guardianship and custody of minors, maintenance claimed by one parent against the other on the basis of child support (unless a proceeding for an offence related to domestic violence is in course);
  2. Liability for professional negligence;
  3. Successions;
  4. Judicial division of assets;
  5. Conflicts between partners and/or with the administrative bodies of commercial companies;
  6. Claims in non-contractual liability matters which are not related to traffic (protected by the Law on Civil Liability and Insurance in the Circulation of Motor Vehicles);
  7. Maintenance orders between relatives;
  8. Horizontal property and communities of property;
  9. Rights in rem over other people's property;
  10. Contracts for distribution, agency, franchise, supply of goods and services provided that they have been the subject of individual negotiation;
  11. Claims for amounts of less than 2,000 euros between individuals when they are not the cause of a consumer act (protected by the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users);
  12. Construction defects deriving from a work lease contract;
  13. Protection of the rights to honour, privacy or one's own image;
  14. Lease proceedings to be conducted through the channels of ordinary trial.

This new Regulation will enter into force three years after its publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) in order to ensure sufficient time for  adjustment of the regulatory framework and to encourage the presence of mediators in all judicial districts.  Within one year of the publication of the law, it is also foreseen that the faculties of Law and related degrees will implement compulsory trainings on mediation.  

Written by: Cristina García Alzina

 

Source:http://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/consejodeministros/referencias/Paginas/2019/refc20190111.aspx#MEDIACION
https://www.abogacia.es/2019/01/10/el-consejo-de-ministros-aprobara-el-anteproyecto-de-ley-de-impulso-de-la-mediacion/

Image: http://picpedia.org/handwriting/m/mediation.html



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