CROATIA, WHICH WILL SOON BECOME A MEMBER STATE OF THE EU, EXEMPLARILY INTRODUCES MEDIATION AS PART OF CIVIL PROCESSES. A CARINTHIAN LED THE IMPLEMENTATION GROUP

Kleine Zeitung, December 2009

"Why are the litigants with me instead of finding together a solution?" This is the question, that Gerhard Falk from Klagenfurt asked himself again and again in his time as advocate– and which brought him to make an education to become a mediator.

In the meantime, others think so as well, for example the EU. According to a directive, since 2011 there must be a mediation hearing in all member states in cross-border economic processes. Croatia even goes further and introduces mandatory mediation in all civil processes. For 22 months, Falk led a project group of 30 people in Zagreb, that implemented this. Seven states participated.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATES IN PROCEEDINGS

Dolomiten, February 2007

Rosa Thaler-Zelger is happy. "This is a very important sign of the provincial government which in this way discusses on the same level with affected persons, advocates and opponents and expresses its seriousness in finding a solution. After all, it is the provincial government to make the decision."

The contract contains the rules of mediation: the demand of fairness (respect for contrary opinions), the will to give information and to become actively involved as well as the principle of consensus for decisions. Anyone, who still wants to participate in the mediation as a representative of a group, can only do this until the next meeting.

AT THE MEDIATION EVENT FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE AIRPORT BOZEN YESTERDAY IN THE PALAIS WIDMANN, THEY TALKED PLAIN LANGUAGE

Dolomiten, January 2007

"It was a very productive discussion", mediator Gerhard Falk said afterwards. "I've seen a lot of mutual respect, although clear words are spoken". Also airport-chief Baumgartner found clear words: "It was a bit chaotic." He expressed the hope that the team of mediators would succeed in directing the mediation into technically constructive channels. "

A MEDIATOR CAN INTERVENE IN MANY FIELDS BY GIVING HELP AND SUPPORT. WHO SHOULD AIM AT A MEDIATION TRAINING, IN WHICH PROFESSIONAL SECTORS CAN IT BE USED, HOW LONG YOU WILL HAVE TO LEARN AND HOW MUCH DOES IT COST

Training, August 2009

There is a cold atmosphere in the company. "Nobody is talking to nobody." Anybody is waiting for the others’ errors and seeking to show no shortcomings by himself. Contact with customers is simulated to be friendly to neutral. However, attentive and sensitive customers freeze to the marrow, when entering the company. They come once and never again.

Often a solution and turning to something positive is so close. Experts in conflict settlement agree that "you only have to talk about". But wait, first you have to be aware that there is a smouldering conflict. How do you know that unexpressed things take you the air to breathe?

Dr. Gerhard Falk (Business Mediator, Falk Group) adds: "if no one laughs any more or when feeling unease in certain areas of the body, when breathing becomes more difficult."

MORE THAN 100 MILLION EURO A YEAR SLIP THROUGH THE FINGERS OF AUSTRIA’S ECONOMY BECAUSE OF UNNECESSARY CONFLICTS

Kleine Zeitung, September 2011

Frustrated employees. Hostile departments. Extremely long economic processes that tie up time and money. All this is part of everyday life in Austria’s business world. "If you add the avoidable costs of such conflicts and the lost benefit of reasonable solutions, you will get more than 100 million euro damage a year," says Gerhard Falk from Klagenfurt. The advocate has become one of the most popular mediators. He contributed to consensual solutions in disputed airport constructions as well in better conclusions of neighborhood disputes, company transfers or the proceeding concerning nine German who were killed 2005 in their cabin by a helicopter load. 

MORE AND MORE OFTEN, MEDIATION IS USED FOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN BUSINESS. THUS, HARDENED POSITIONS ARE SOFTENED AND EXPENSIVE CIVIL DISPUTES CAN BE AVOIDED.

Salzburger Nachrichten, August 2009

Conflicts and disputes in business are actually a normal matter. But often, the situation escalates and emotions are involved that have been set up for years. Mediation is one of the ways to find a balancing act. "Mediation is certainly no magic, no voodoo," says Gerhard Falk, lecturer at the University of Klagenfurt and himself mediator. "Mediation is necessary in all places where two or more business partners get into a conflict that begins to get a legal character."

POLITICAL RELAXATION IS ALSO A SUCCESS FOR MEDIATION

Kleine Zeitung, June 2010

That - and especially how - movement has come into the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia concerning the access to the sea, brings Gerhard Falk to collegial pleasure. Because the breakthrough in the relations between the two countries is in large part due to mediation and thus one of the most significant political successes of this strategy.

Falk himself is mediator, has his own consulting company and close contacts with the University of Klagenfurt. He knows something that many others don’t know: "Before his appointment to the Slovenian Minister of Justice, Ales Zalar was spokesman of judges and lawyer in my international team of experts that prepared the introduction of mediation in each of the 158 Croatian courts. As a minister, he has immediately joined into the conflict resolution." This cooperation was a "mosaic" on the way to the referendum on Sunday that shall lead the two countries from their dangerous stalemate, says Falk.