ADR to be made mandatory in certain cases:

To successfully bring ADR to the common man while still reducing the backlog of cases piled up in Courts, radical steps need to be taken. It is important that the legislature introduce certain provisions which discourage initiation of litigation in cases where out of court settlements can easily be worked out.

Imparting Legal Literacy:

Perhaps the biggest roadblock that faces any country is illiteracy. Our government has continuously been trying to eradicate illiteracy and now the new task has become even harder, that is, to impart legal literacy to the literates and illiterates alike. Legal literacy empowers one to be an active and alert citizen, thereby making a population more vigilant about its rights and duties. ADR is a fairly new concept to many and concepts like these not only take time in percolating to the grass root levels, acceptance of such a concept is also a big problem. Therefore a robust programme imparting legal literacy to the masses in Bangladesh, especially in the field of ADR becomes a necessity. Not only will this allow bringing ADR to the common man, an aware citizen will contribute positively to the development of the nation too.

Integrating ADR in the legal education

The legal education of today’s Bangladesh needs to take the ADR mechanisms seriously. Today these mechanisms are taught only as part of specialty courses which primarily focus on the deployment of these processes pertaining to areas of corporate mergers and amalgamations.

The need of the hour is different – It is time when these dispute resolution mechanisms are taught as essential courses for a new breed of lawyers who will be adept in these forms of dispute resolutions and these lawyers will surely help the ordinary man in the long run.