The practice of conciliation and extra-procedural mediation according to legal operators

Abstract

A culture of conflict management established in the adjudicated decision is strongly active in Brazil, that is, it is believed that a conflict can only be resolved through a judicial process and through the ruling of a qualified judge. This ruling culture has potentiated a crisis in justice, since the number of cases has become greater than the capacity of the judiciary to manage them. Taking this issue into account, a consensus-based justice model has recently spread, in which alternative dispute resolution practices - conciliation and mediation - are applied for the parties to dialogue and to participate in the solution of disputes. The implementation of a consensus culture is not only the solution to the crisis in the judiciary, but a form of social pacification. The goal of our research was to understand the practice of conciliation and extra-procedural mediation from the viewpoint of conciliators and/or mediators working in Judicial Centers for Conflict Resolution and Citizenship in two counties in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We conducted interviews with semi-structured script and the participants' reports were submitted to the content analysis technique. We concluded that they understand conciliation as presented in the literature; however, they do not make the proper distinction regarding mediation in their daily professional practice, lacking better professional qualification, which should be offered by the judiciary itself. Certain of the relevance of their social role, the research participants pointed out a need for greater recognition of their professional practice and more organizational support.