What is it?
Mediation is an option within the Justice Department. It is an alternate route, for first-time, or minor, offenders, who wish to accept responsibility for their actions. This means there need to be no trial.

How does it work?
First, a complaint is made in the regular way to the Justice Department. Then, should the accused be a first time offender or have a minor charge, the Justice Officer may offer both parties an opportunity to have a mediation session instead of a lengthy trial. Should both parties accept, then a meeting time and place (usually either ICQ or MSN Messenger) will set up between the accused, the complainant, the mediator (usually the Justice Officer), and anyone either side requests be present. Counsel is welcome as well. The catch so far? The accused must be willing to accept responsibility for their actions.

What will happen?
Both the complainant AND the accused will have their turn to speak without being interrupted. They will discuss what happened, why it happened, what circumstances were surrounding the commission of the offence, and anything else they want to add. The complainant will have a chance to tell what happened to them because of the offence, what they felt, what was the result of the accused's actions upon them. They may ask each other questions, as may any counsel present. Then TOGETHER, they will decide a fitting punishment for the accused. These may be in line with the Code of Offences punishments, or something totally different.

Why would anyone want to do this?
In this type of forum there is the rare opportunity to ask the person who committed the offence why they did it, and to get some answers. As well, it allows the accused their own voice, to tell their story face to face with the complainant. It also allows more input from both sides into what the end results will be, thus giving a bit of control back to the people the Justice system polices.

What are some of the drawbacks or potential problems?
Some of the potential problems that may arise are:

• The accused is unwilling to accept responsibility for their actions for any number of reasons.
• The parties involved cannot come to an acceptable agreement
• The parties involved are unwilling to comply with the requirements, such as acting civil and polite, and taking turns to listen to each other, or start to fight, name-call, or other misbehaviour.
• Any number of other reasons.

If mediation fails, a trial will be started in the usual manner.

What is the point of the mediator?
The mediator is like part judge, part referee, part advisor and guide. The mediator is there to guide the conversation to keep it on topic, to help when people are afraid or possibly unwilling to talk, to referee to make sure the discussion stays on topic and does not revert to name-calling, falsely accusing, bickering, fighting, to help with the decisions those involved will be making, and agree to the agreement made between the parties. The mediator also keeps a record of the session, and a record of the punishments. Should the accused agree to a punishment and then not fulfil it, a trial may THEN be set up and failure to comply with the court may be added.

Why was this introduced?
There are many complaints of a minor nature that would more easily and fairly be dealt with in such a manner than by a trial that may put both accused and complainant off duty for a week, perhaps multiple weeks, rather unnecessarily. It is meant to give people a greater voice into things that they are involved in.