AN APPRAISAL OF THE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE OF MULTI-DOOR COURTHOUSES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Multi-Door Court house (herein after called MDCH) is not another type of ADR process, rather it is a court –connected facility that formally integrates ADR into the court system and affords disputing parties the choice of having their disputes referred to the most appropriate dispute resolution process such as Negotiation, Mediation, Conciliation, Arbitration, Early Neutral Evaluation, Med-Arb and a lot more hybrid mechanism, after expert appraisal of the nature of respective disputes. The objective of this paper is to appraise the practice and procedure of Multi-Door Court Houses or Court Connected ADRs in Nigeria. The methodology adopted in this research is doctrinal. It relied on both primary and secondary data. This paper found out that Alternative Dispute Resolution Processes are increasingly being adopted in Nigeria as appropriate methods for settling disputes while some jurisdictions have institutionalized Alternative Dispute Resolution through the concept of a Multi-door Court house, many others are at different stages of formally introducing Alternative Dispute Resolution into their Court systems. This paper concludes that this process of settlement of dispute be encouraged because the essence and place of ADR in the national and international commercial and business relationship are obvious and that ADR offers advantage that litigation from its nature can never provide.