Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water
Dr Barry Mendelawitz stepped up into our guest speaker’s role at very short notice when our scheduled speaker was unable to attend.
Barry spoke about his role at the Citizens Advice Bureau. Barry and his wife Margaret joined CAB in 2003. Citizens Advice Bureau was started 60 years ago in the UK.
It is a low cost service for people wishing to access advice and mediation across community, legal and family issues.
Barry chose to become involved with community mediation. Family law mediation almost always involves children. It exists to protect the rights and well being of children. Mediation is compulsory for a Family Law Court appearance. Waiting for a Family Court hearing can take from two to four years and costs thousands of dollars.
The model for community mediation is two voluntary mediators who may have been lawyers, teachers or family counsellors in their past lives.
Most disputes are referred to CAB by local government. Councils contribute $5000 annually towards CAB’s funding. Self-referrals or mediations for clubs cost $300 for a two hour session.
Privately, they can pay $1000 to $10,000, with one retired judge known to charge $20,000.
CAB funding also comes from the Law Society, but it is losing money.
The most common problems Barry deals with are boundary fences, retaining walls, overhanging trees, sometimes dog barking and chooks, and even one case involving prawns.
Joondalup is a prime location for boundary and retaining wall problems because of its hilly geography and fencing costs must be shared between adjoining households.
Others come from sporting or business associations with disputes between committee members.
Barry stressed that mediation doesn’t work all of the time but it does help to keep disputes away from expensive lawyers and the judicial system.
Mediation is private and confidential with no legal or financial advice issued to the complainants. Rather it focuses on working together to help solve problems. If disputes are allowed to fester for years, they can escalate to acts such as throwing dog poo or tree branches over the common fence. Sometimes years go by and the reason for the original dispute is almost forgotten.
When a complainant approaches a local government authority, it may refer them to CAB. CAB then reaches out to the other party to set up a mediation session.
The session begins with the warring parties’ opening statements. Mediators list points of agreement and options on CAB’s digital smart board in an effort to reach agreement.
If a resolution is reached, a non enforceable legal contract is printed for the disputing parties to follow. If collaboration cannot be obtained, mediators may talk about options or even to do nothing.
Barry rattled off this most informative and entertaining talk without the benefit of notes and not even an “um”. He is obviously a natural speaker and mediator and we didn’t even notice the absence of our advertised speaker.
Sue provided the most light-hearted moment of the morning when she queried the expression “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”. Us older folk laughed knowingly and Barry explained the real origins of the saying.
Maybe the saying translates to modern day usage as: “All good”, or “don’t sweat the small stuff”.
