The Durres District Court Center for Commercial Mediation began offering mediation services for family cases thanks to USAID support.

A Winning Solution for Albania’s Judicial System

Albania’s justice sector faces an uphill battle when it comes to building public confidence in its courts.  Lengthy case processing times and frequent hearing postponements delays cases for months, if not years. In addition, courts must undergo very detailed and lengthy procedures for even the smallest cases.  On average, 24% of civil cases take over six months to be solved in the first instance, in the High Court it may take years until a decision is given.  Courts in Albania’s largest districts (population over 100,000) also report significant backlogs, some with over 1,500 cases in queue.  Twenty percent of all cases registered in the Albanian courts in 2010 remained still unresolved and constituted a backlog for 2011.  Such inefficiencies undermine citizen’s access to justice and negatively harm their perception of the court system. Furthermore, in Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perception report, Albania fell eight places in the index to 94 out of 178 countries studied.  The decline stems from the public’s lack of trust in Albania’s judicial system, as well as high levels of corruption.

Albanian authorities are recognizing the problem and in 2010 adopted a law on mediation requiring all courts to offer mediation services as an alternative to undergoing full court proceedings.  However, as with many laws in Albania, there is poor implementation of the law and, to date, very few courts report referrals of mediation cases. 

To address this challenge, in April 2011 USAID began supporting Al-bania’s first mediation center connected to the Durres District Court.  The center provides mediation services as an alternative to court dispute resolution for commercial and family cases.  The center receives cases based on referrals from judges. In its first three months, the center has successfully mediated 19 cases.  Over 60% were family cases, mostly related to child custody or alimony claims.  The average time to successfully resolve cases was only 8 days -- a period of time far shorter than through traditional litigation.

Overall, beneficiaries of the center voiced satisfaction with the process and noted the benefit of resolving their disputes in a fast, low cost, and effective forum.  A testament to the Center’s growing reputation is that nearly one-third of cases are being recommended by people who the court system best-- Albania’s lawyers, and their family and friends.

As a result of positive experiences with mediation in the Durres District Court, USAID opened another center in southern Albania and will launch a comprehensive public awareness campaign on the program’s benefits.