On behalf of the Joint Mediation Helpline Office (“JMHO”), Mr Oscar Tan (Assistant Honorary Secretary) and Ms Cindy Fong (Mediation Consultant) attended an interview hosted by RTHK Radio 5 and talked about how the Minor Dispute Mediation Pilot Scheme (MDMPS) can help disputants resolve daily conflicts in a cost-effective and amicable manner.

The interview was conducted on 18 October 2016 during the programme “Stand by Me”, which aims at promoting charitable and humanity services to the vulnerable community. The average daily audience of RTHK is around 500,000.



During the programme, Ms. Fong explained that mediation is a negotiation process assisted by a neutral and impartial mediator, who has been trained in facilitating effective and direct communication between the disputing parties. The mediator will help parties identify their concerns and assist them to reach an acceptable resolution. She remarked that mediation is confidential and flexible, and a mediator will make use of both joint and separate meetings to facilitate negotiation. Where information is disclosed during separate meetings, it will not be disclosed to the other party unless with express consent.

Mr Tan added that confidentiality is the cornerstone of mediation. Commercial entities can preserve their reputation by avoiding public court proceedings. More importantly, separate meetings also allow information which is otherwise concealed in negotiation to be explored with so that solutions can be devised to address those hidden concerns. It, therefore, breaks deadlocks but at the same time save the parties' face.



Mr. Tan explained that mediators need to handle emotions and command trust from the parties during mediation. Hence their communication skills are more important than their subject matter knowledge in achieving these objectives. That is why mediators need to be specially trained and accredited. On the other hand, the substantive knowledge of a mediator help him/ her perform “reality-tests” on parties’ positions, allowing them to evaluate the merits of their case and focus on realistic proposals on settlement.

Ms. Fong also introduced the MDMPS which is funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and independently administered by the JMHO. It aims to provide mediation services to people with limited financial means to resolve dispute. By helping them settle their disputes, the MDMPS also aims to foster a harmonious society by helping parties to preserve relationship.

Eligible disputes under MDMPS are civil disputes arising from a recognized social or legal relationship with or without a monetary element, e.g. neighbours, landlords and tenants, vendors and customers, etc. Disputants only need to pay HK$200 application fee for a 4-hour mediation session. If disputants do not know how mediation can help or whether their case is suitable for mediation, MDMPS also provides free mediation consultation sessions so that disputants will be able to understand mediation better and gauge the possibility of having their disputes successfully resolved by way of mediation.



During the programme, there were 2 phone-in enquiries, one concerning a dispute between family members and the other concerning personal injury. Both were good examples of eligible disputes which can be resolved amicably if the parties are willing to talk to each other. Ms Fong and Mr Tan also shared their mediation experience, and explained how mediators reframed confrontations into joint problem-solving in various commercial disputes, employment disputes and family-related disputes, and how these disputes were resolved in a cost and time-saving manner. When asked to nominate a song to be played to the audience, Mr. Tan chose a Cantonese pop song (“陀飛輪”), the lyrics of which imply that life is too short to be wasted on struggles and disputes. There are more meanings to life than pursuing rights or wrongs.



Special acknowledgment is given to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for funding the Minor Dispute Mediation Pilot Scheme and RTHK Radio 5 for inviting JMHO to the interview.

The said radio programme can be accessed by the link: https://goo.gl/B7KgCT