COURTS (MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION) ACT 1991 No. 113 of 1991 - SECT 11

COURTS (MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION) ACT 1991 No. 113 of 1991 - SECT 11

11. After section 53 of the Principal Act the following sections are inserted:
Mediation and arbitration

"53A. Subject to the Rules of Court, the Court may, with the consent of the
parties to proceedings in the Court, by order refer the proceedings, or any
part of them or any matter arising out of them, to a mediator or an arbitrator
for mediation or arbitration, as the case may be, in accordance with the Rules
of Court. Admissions made to mediators

"53B. Evidence of anything said, or of any admission made, at a conference
conducted by a mediator in the course of mediating anything referred under
section 53A is not admissible:

   (a)  in any court (whether exercising federal jurisdiction or not); or

   (b)  in any proceedings before a person authorised by a law of the
        Commonwealth or of a State or Territory, or by the consent of the
        parties, to hear evidence. Protection of mediators and arbitrators

"53C. A mediator or an arbitrator has, in mediating or arbitrating anything
referred under section 53A, the same protection and immunity as a Judge has in
performing the functions of a Judge.".