Legal Aid Society (LAS) organized a One-day paralegals’ refresher training program on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) at a local hotel in Karachi.
The paralegals from Karachi and Hyderabad were imparted the exclusive training. ADR refers to any method of resolving disputes without litigation. ADR regroups all processes and techniques of a conflict resolution that occur without any government authority. Mediation, Arbitration, Conciliation, Negotiationand Transaction are called the most famous ADR tools. Legal Aid Society is working on Alternate Dispute Resolution for the last fiveyears to improve the supply and demand of ADR in eight districts of Sindh and enabled ordinary citizens to file their grievances before the ADR forums.
Talking to the media, Abbas Ali, the ADR programme manager of LAS, said that they have established a sustainable mechanism whereby communities can effectively reach out torelevant ADR providers for quick and effective resolution of their justified legal needs.
“LAS has trained 192 ADR paralegals in eight districts of Sindh. The huge Community ADR Network (CAN) consisting of Sixty-fourADR paralegals groups has been established. More than 1000 cases have been resolved in the shortest period of last six months.
The ADR paralegals have already been prepared to educate members of the community who are involved or interested in social work on a volunteer basis. LAS has also prepared a cadre of trained Salis members in almost all the districts of Sindh in the past,” elaborated Abbas.
Sharing their mixed views, the paralegals said thatpotential cases are being identified and referred towards ADR mechanisms, including Offices of the Ombudsman. “In their communities,awareness sessions are continuously taking place and communities are widely having benefits of cost and time effective solutions of their disputes,” they opined.
