This paper refers to ‘Pre-trial proceedings and mediation’ of the topic 'Procedures and judgments' of the conference of PSG XVIII on Justice and Court administration 2023.

Research shows that it leads to greater satisfaction among process participants if attention has been paid to underlying interests in a dispute resolution process, which is more often the case when mediation skills are used. This can move the parties to faster agreement and/or greater acceptance of the outcome of the dispute.

The rapid dynamics of economic development and social changes in the contemporary world and in our country, in recent years, is characterized by an increase in the number of disputes and conflicts between individuals. In a general sense we can say that conflict is defined as a situation in which individuals do not agree, or have different needs, interests or values, which result in disagreement, mistrust and tension between them. In such situations, individuals often tend to think that the most common form of dispute resolution is through formal court proceedings.

However, the judicial procedure is not the only means, and in some cases not even the most suitable means, for resolving disputes between different parties. For years now, the legal framework of many countries offers the possibility of using alternative means of dispute resolution, which - compared to the judicial procedure - present several advantages for the parties, such as: reducing the conflict between the parties, reducing the caseload and saving money in human and financial resources of the court, low cost and duration of the process, etc. One of the alternative means of dispute resolution is mediation as an extrajudicial activity that is carried out by a third person (mediator) to resolve disputes between parties in different fields.

In Albania, the first special law on mediation activity dates back to 1999, while the legislator has continuously tried to bring improvements in this activity through the adoption of law no. 9090/2003 and, subsequently, of the current law in force no. 10385/2011. The latter brought several innovations of an institutional, conceptual and functional character. However, despite the intent and content of the law, it failed to fulfil its purpose; the evaluations carried out within the framework of the Justice Reform identified some problems that required the intervention of the legislator. It was assessed that the law no. 10385/2011 had not achieved its goal and had not found the appropriate implementation in the field of law, as well as it was not harmonized with the rest of the legislation, mainly with the Codes, since these acts did not provide proper mediation space. The courts were not active in calling mediators and addressing to them the resolution of certain types of issues, especially those of a family and property nature.