PROBLEM OFJUDICIAL DELAY IN THE PHILIPPINES

MARCOS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Misuse of due process and the abuse of legal technicalities

Intervention of political pressures in court cases
Sheer weight of court litigations arising from development and growth
Dilatory tactics of lawyers
Neglect and laxity on the part of judges

FLORENTINO FELICIANO
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Inefficient and mismanaged court system that fails to act promptly on legal issues
Disorganized state of court-connected agencies
Lack of preparation on the part of litigants and lawyers
Trigger-happy mind- frame of lawyers to engage in long-winded exams of witnesses
Lawyers propensity to elevate their cases to the appellate courts by needlessly filing petitions
for mandamus, prohibition, and certiorari for the purpose of reviewing the interlocutory orders
of the lower courts.

BAKKER
1. Appeal even minor cases to the appellate courts or even to the SC with the claim that these
cases involve issues of law.
2. File numerous unnecessary petitions
3. Inform the judge that one is ill or that a client is or a key witness
4. Present witnesses and evidence in a piecemeal fahion
5. Arrive late or not at all and blame this delay on heavy traffic or ones car breaking down
6. Have a third party recieve the postal delivery of the court order requiring the client or witness to
appear in court
7. Purposely protract the cross-exam of witnesses
8. Report that one is prevented from appearing in court because one is urgently and unexpectedly
needed in another court case
KATARUNGANG PAMBARANGAY
Most recent judicial innovations
PRIVATE JUSTICE

= Recent development in the administration of justice

= Vigilante justice

Goal: resolve the dispute expeditiously, w/o much fanfare and expense
ARBITRATION : reference of a controversy or dispute to selected persons for an informal hearing and
extrajudicial determination and resolution by mutual agreement or consent of the parties.

Hearing is usually held in private and the decision of these selected persons will be a substitute for a
court judgment.
Philippine courts have recognized arbitration agreements as valid, binding and enforceable and not
contrary to public policy.
MEDIATION : dispute resolution procedure in which an impartial third party, mutually chosen by the
parties, acts as the catalyst to help the contending parties settle their dispute
Mediator: no authority to make the parties reach an agreement
ARBITRATION AND MEDIATION: Are integral components of private justice or conflict resolution derived
not from a court of law but from a private tribunal by mutual agreement of parties.
CONCILIATION
Criticisms: Creates dual court system
** offers savings in time, effort, anxiety and money in the long haul
CONFUCIUS: ancient advocate of ADR
2 FUNDAMENTAL REASONS FOR THE FAILURE OF TRIAL COURTS
a. Court rules and procedures are so complicated and inefficient that lawyer fees and other costs
end up being a bigger problem than the dispute itself
b. Winner-take-all system defies logic, encourages lying and generally brings out the worst in all
participants.
CONFLICT : clash or divergence of opinions, values, interests and emotions.
: sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity
: exists as an inherent part of the economic and social matrix
Conflict analysis involves several phases of the conflict process:
a. 1st Phase starts when the parties perceive their differences nd go thru feelings of anxiety and
frustration
b. 2nd Phase focuses on the realization, expression of grievances, and the assessment of all angles
in the conflict including the sources or flashpoints of the disagreement and the financial and
personal resources of the parties.
Avoidance Syndrome
c. 3rd Phase is reached when the parties choose their conflict resolution methods and select their
strategies to settle their disagreements
d. 4th Phase marks the evaluation of outcomes and the analysis of all ramifications of the full
implementation of the chosen method of conflict management.

2 ways of seeing conflict:

a. It is a contest
b. A problem to solve together
5 possible modes of conflict resolution:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Withdrawal
: avoidance behaviour on the part of one or both parties
Smoothing
: involves emphasis on common interests and yielding by one or both parties
Compromise : occurs thru behaviour in which each side obtains part of what it wants
Forcing
: occurs thru behaviour hich causes the other to acquiesce
Problem solving/ integrative methods: involves an agreement in which both sides meet their
objective and affective needs.

LITIGATION: has become the modern version of armed conflict, a socially acceptable form of modern
skirmish
: sustaining lifeblood of lawyers
Importance:
a. When you need to establish a legal precedent, such as the validity of the patent which your
company holds
b. When you need to publicly prove the truth
c. When your companys legal rights have been infringed and you stood a good chance of
collecting substantial damages in court
d. When your opponent is unable and unwilling to participate in ADR
e. When serious crimes are involved in the dispute
ADR derives its roots from the 1987 consti
Art 3 Sec 5 p5: mandates the SC to promulgate rules that shall provide a simplified and inexpensive
procedure for the speedy disposition of cases
1997 Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 18 sec 2a requires courts to consider the possibility of an amicable
settlement or of a submission to alternative modes of resolution

JUDICIAL ARBITRATION or court-annexed arbitration

Is a conflict resolution programmed governed by an existing statute or a court rule that allows litigants
to move their cases out of the civil trial calendar and proceed to resolve their differences with the aid of
an arbitrator selected from a list usually provided by the court

Provides for a built-n mechanism in court and remedy in of trial de novo (new trial of the entire case in
court as if there had been no trial or arbitration in the first place)
Essentially mandatory and nonbinding. Discovery procedures and pleadings are required.
MANDATORY MEDIATION
Court-sponsored program that requires the parties in a legal dispute to meet in good faith with a neutral
third party for at least one session before they are legally allowed to try their case in a court of law
Court referred mediation in the Philippines
Completed in 1993 by the Office of Legal Aid of the UP, College of Law
Purely voluntary
Program covers cases already filed and pending in court where parties are willing to submit their
differences to a qualified mediator for settlement.
Define mediation as a process by which the parties to a pending case are enjoined by the court
to submit their controversy to a neutral third party, not a judge, who works with them to reach a
settlement of their dispute.
MATTERS IN CONTROVERSY THAT MAY NOT CAPABLE OF BEING REFERRED TO ARBITRATION:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Issues related to the civil status of persons

Validity of marriage
Legal separation
Future support
Future legitime
Jurisdiction of courts
Future jurisdiction
Class actions proceedings
Unlawful detainer proceedings