For the Love of ADR: Mass Awareness Advocacy

The birth of the Multi-Door Courthouse (MDC) in Nigeria was borne out of delay, frustration and exorbitant cost associated with the adversarial system of settling disputes. The need to change the psyche of the citizens, particularly the parties who would, in connection with their lawyers come up with all sorts of tactics to boycott mediation sessions in a bid to stall the mediation process capitalising on the apparent reason that the judge will not sanction them; is instructive to sustain the bedrock upon which the MDC was established.

The need for mass advocacy or awareness of ADR is imperative- there are other alternative methods of settling disputes that exist apart from the mono-track system (litigation). Hence, the work analysed scrutinised some findings from the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse (LMDC), Enugu State Multi-Door Courthouse (ESMDC) and reviewed literature on the American Multi-Door Courthouse. Hence the work employs both the doctrinal, comparative and qualitative methods of (interviews and focus group discussions) data gathering to analyse the need to engage in a mass education of the society for schools to include ADR in their curriculum and make it compulsory. In furtherance, for lawyers, stakeholders, or users to understand the benefits of utilising ADR.