Ontario  Mandates Mediation Per Simm’s ADR Study

In 1997, the Attorney General of Ontario announced Canada's first program to refer all non-family civil cases to mandatory mediation. As reported by The Financial Post  in the article below, this decision was primarily based on recommendations made in a 1996 study for the Ontario Law Reform Commission, “Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Ontario Civil Justice System” (reproduced below). Peter A. Simm was the sole researcher and wrote the complete first draft of that study. The final Report of the Civil Justice Review substantially adopted the study's recommendations.