The Legal Education - Law Commission of India

66The law students, the Bar and the Bench must, therefore, consider thatpractice in courts is no longer confined to developing skills in advocacy butalso skills in ADR procedures.6.6 In an adversarial system, lawyers have grown to view courts asplaces for a combat or a legal fight. Law students and lawyers must betrained not merely to speak for their clients but to listen to the views of theopponent and see if an adjustment can be made which will save time andmoney for the litigants and incidentally save time for the courts. If somecases are settled, courts can deal faster more complex or important cases orcases relating to criminal offences etc. which must necessarily beadjudicated by the courts.If the training in respect of ADR procedures starts right from the lawschool, a lawyer who has gone through that training or prospect will not beaverse to a system of settlement by ADR methods. A culture differentfrom the one now prevailing has to be developed and this has to be startedin right earnest from the law school level. Now that sec. 89 imposes amandate that every case must go through ADR processes. ADR processesmust be made a compulsory subject in the law school for students.But, the more important thing today is that lawyers at the Bar, havenot had sufficient knowledge of the techniques relating to the ADR systemsor the ground rules or the ethical aspects of the system, - such as thoserelating to confidentiality – but are compelled to participate in the ADRprocesses by virtue of the mandate of sec. 89 of the Code of Civil