SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Benedict Teo, Kelvin Tan, Kong Man Er and Shumin Lin, Drew & Napier LLC
11.3 Interest Awarded on Costs Costs carry interest at the rate of 5.33% per annum from: • the date of assessment; • the date of the order fixing the costs; • the date of agreement between the parties; or • the date of judgment. 12. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) 12.1 Views of ADR Within the Country Singapore offers a suite of ADR options, including arbitration, mediation and other forms of ADR. Mediation has grown in prominence in the Singapore legal landscape, with the establishment of mediation institutions such as the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC), the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC), the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) and the State Courts Centre for Dispute Resolu- tion (SCCDR). Hybrid arbitration and mediation options are also available in Singapore, whereby parties to an arbitra- tion agree to first engage in mediation, and record any settlement reached as a consent award in the arbitra- tion. Parties may then continue with arbitration if they fail to reach a settlement (ie, Arb-Med-Arb procedure). 12.2 ADR Within the Legal System ADR is an integral part of the Singapore courts’ proce- dural framework. A party to any proceedings has the duty to consider amicable resolution of the dispute before the commencement and during the course of any action or appeal. A party is to make an offer of amicable resolution (by way of either an offer to settle or an offer to resolve the dispute other than by litigation) before commencing an action unless it has reasonable grounds not to do so, and must not reject any offer of amicable resolu- tion unless it has reasonable grounds to do so. The court may order the parties to attempt to resolve the dispute by amicable resolution or suggest solutions for the amicable resolution of the dispute to the par-
ties at any time as the court thinks fit. Courts may take into account a party’s failure to discharge its duty to consider amicable resolution, including any unreason- able refusal to participate in ADR in apportioning costs between the parties. The SCPD provide that parties may make formal offers for engaging in ADR, and the court may give directions for the adjournment of pending proceedings if the par- ties are willing to attempt ADR. The State Courts integrate ADR services into their dispute resolution framework through the SCCDR. Appropriate matters (such as non-injury motor acci- dent cases, personal injury cases and medical neg- ligence cases) before the State Courts will automati- cally be fixed for ADR at the SCCDR. It is the professional duty of advocates and solicitors in Singapore to advise their clients to consider ADR and to give their clients sufficient information about the different ways in which their disputes may be resolved using an appropriate form of ADR. Singapore has also sought to make ADR a more attractive option for dispute resolution by enhancing the enforceability of mediated settlements, through making mediated settlement agreements enforce- able in the same manner as a court judgment or order under the Mediation Act. The United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation also provides for the direct enforcement (and execution) of mediated settlement agreements across signatory countries. Singapore is a signatory to the Convention and has enacted the Sin- gapore Convention on Mediation Act for this purpose. The Mediation Act 2017 provides for the confidential- ity and inadmissibility of mediation communication, which includes the agreement to mediate and the mediated settlement agreement. 12.3 ADR Institutions Various institutions in Singapore provide a range of ADR services. The main arbitration institution in Sin- gapore is SIAC, which administers both international and domestic cases. International arbitration institu- tions have also set up regional offices in Singapore,
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