‘Face-to-face trial may speed up cases’

To declog court dockets and speed up civil cases that can take three to eight years to resolve, the Supreme Court (SC) is proposing changes in the Rules of Civil Procedure.

One way is to require parties to undergo two-stage mediation before actually filing a case in court.

Another is to have “face-to-face” trials where witnesses from opposite camps sit around a table in court and answer questions put forth by lawyers and the judge.

These steps will make court proceedings “non-adversarial”, and have parties serve as “mutual cooperators in the search for truth,” said Associate Justice Gabriel Ingles of the Court of Appeals in Cebu.

He explained highlights of the proposed revisions yesterday.

On May 28, Associate Justice Roberto Abad, who steered the proposed changes of the rules, will be in Cebu to lead the first nationwide consultation on the proposed revision at the Marco Polo Plaza.

“One of the major causes in the delay of disposing cases is the cumbersome rules of procedure. Now, the Supreme Court is introducing drastic changes to the rules,” Ingles said.

Future venues are in Davao and Manila.

After the nationwide consultations, a draft will be submitted to the Supreme Court which has the full authority to set new rules.

A new feature is the introduction of face-to-face trials with parties in court gathered around a table.

The judge will start the examination, covering one factual issue or closely related issues at a time. When the judge is finished, it’s the turn of the lawyers to ask questions and conduct cross and redirect examinations.

Speaking in Filipino (Tagalog) is already allowed under the proposed new rules with no interpretation needed.

“The new rules suggest that Filipino and English could be used by witnesses and the lawyers,” he said.

He clarified that Cebuano, however, still needs to be translated to English or Filipino so that in case the issues are raised to the Supreme Court, justices won’t have a difficult time reading it.

The proposed changes don’t apply to civil cases like legal separation and annulment and declaration of nullity of marriage which are cases that are not subject to amicable settlement.

The two-stage mediation is another big change. of nullity of marriage.

“Under the proposed rules, no one can just file a civil case in court without first trying to settle issues among concerned individuals. In case, direct negotiation fails, the parties must seek the intervention of a third party mediator for another attempt at settlement,” said Ingles.

Once a case is filed in court and issues are defined, the court will refer the case to “court-annexed mediation”.

The SC proposal said that “court-trained mediators have high success rates.”

If the first mediation fails, a second one is ordered following “judicial dispute proceedings”.

The pairing judge of the court where the case is raffled will arbitrate the case.

A trial will start only after this stage of judicial arbitration fails.

At present, only two mediations are required by the law —one in the barangay level and another in court.

As proposed, parties also have to disclose before the preliminary conference all their evidence – affidavits, documents, exhibits already marked and authenticated.