LEGAL REGULATION OF SOCIAL INTERMEDIARY SERVICE (MEDIATION) IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the coverage of the legal regulation of mediation as a social service under the legislation of Ukraine and the study of the peculiarities of its implementation in practice. It is established that the State Standard of Social Mediation Service is the only normative legal act that regulates the issue of providing social mediation service. The need to amend this legal act is justified given the incorrect use of the terms «intermediary» and «mediation», the presence of terminological confusion associated with the names of contracts concluded during the giving of mediation services and others. The advantages of the mediation process over the litigation are given: universality, confidentiality, speed of dispute resolution (saving time) savings, minimum formal factors and state influence, voluntariness and impartiality of the procedure, high probability of reaching a mutually beneficial solution, possibility to prevent similar conflicts in the future decision. The peculiarities of the practice of providing social mediation services are studied and the main factors that cause dif iculties are identified: arbitrary expression of will to resolve the conflict through mediation, payment for mediation services, intermediary, lack of knowledge and information about the mediation procedure. The content of the main phases of the mediation stage as a social service is revealed: preparation for mediation (premeditation, preliminary phase), research phase (meetings of the parties), search for options for resolving the conflict situation, evaluation of dispute resolution options (bidding phase), decision making and arrangements (closing phase). The issue of mediaability of the dispute is covered and the grounds for refusal to provide social mediation services are described. The directions of solving the problem of lack of awareness of social workers about mediation services and lack of established competencies for conflict resolution through mediation are outlined.