On the Need for Comprehensive Regulation of the Issue of Mediator’s Remuneration in Court Annexed Mediations, Conducted on the Basis of Provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure and Updating Its Height

Abstract

Due to the development of court mediation conducted on the basis of the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure and the lack of significant amendment to the provisions relating to the mediator’s remuneration for the services provided, the authors of the study ask whether the remuneration in question is adequate to the mediator’s experience, competences (knowledge, skills, responsibility), quality and workload (including the amount of working time devoted to a given case being subject of mediation proceedings) and the current economic situation? And if not, how should the mediator’s remuneration be regulated to including the above-mentioned elements? Therefore, authors analyze the issue, formulating a hypothesis that the mediator’s remuneration in disputes in which the basis for conducting mediation are the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure is not regulated comprehensively, and its amount is not adequate to the mediator’s experience, competences, quality of the services she/he provides, workload and the current economic situation. Based on the adopted hypothesis, considering the volume of the study, the authors indicate that the purpose of this argument is, firstly, to present the evolution of the regulations regarding mediator’s remuneration, analysis of the currently applicable regulations and presentation of de lege lata comments. Secondly, the formulation of de lege ferenda demands regarding changes to the regulations governing the mediator’s remuneration, so that the study in question, apart from its scientific and research nature, also has practical and cognitive value for both science and practice. They leave outside the scope of considerations the issues of the mediator’s competences and the system/method of confirming them, as well as the issue of the expenses incurred by him related to acquiring and improving his qualifications or conducting mediation proceedings (referring to them only in a fragmentary way where they consider it necessary). This proposed approach to the topic (for which the following methods were used: dogmatic-legal - to analyze specific provisions of law, theoretical-legal - used to analyze the above-mentioned issues based on the views of the doctrine, including their own, and sociological - used to examine the functioning of the analyzed issue in practice)assumes that the presented issues will allow not only to conduct extended research (due to the Republic of Poland’s membership in the European Union, including a legal and comparative analysis of the issue of mediator’s remuneration in other EU Member States), but also to return to the nationwide discussion (which in mediator circles has been conducted for years), and above all, it will have a real impact on changing the regulations regarding the mediator’s remuneration in connection with the services he provides.