Disputes dealt with by the conciliation boards (discontinued), 2001

The Conciliation boards are minor civil courts with power to deal with claims by arbitration, and are both court and mediator. Many types of disputes are solved at the Conciliation boards, and often it is about money matters, i.e. claims of debt or claims of compensation. Reconciled and judgment are both settlements which are enforceable by a court as judgments.

Considerable increase in all counties

The Conciliation boards in Norway dealt with nearly 29 per cent more cases in 2001 compared with the previous year. Oslo had the strongest increase in the number of completely handled disputes with 37 per cent, followed by Telemark, Aust-Agder and Rogaland with 35 per cent. Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane had the weakest increase with 16 and 19 per cent respectively.

Finnmark dealt with 67 civil disputes per 1 000 inhabitants, followed by Nordland and Troms with 59 and 58 cases respectively per 1 000. Nation-wide, the average was 47 cases per 1 000 inhabitants, 10 more than in 2000. Oslo had 56 cases per 1 000 inhabitants, and more than one of seven civil disputes were dealt with there.

The percentage of judgments by default remained stable

33 000, or 15 per cent of the cases dealt with by the Conciliation boards were dismissed in 2001. In Hordaland and Oslo this makes up 22 and 20 per cent respectively of the cases.

The percentage of judgments by default have remained relatively stable over the last years, and in 2001 it was 70 per cent, or nearly 150 000 cases. A reply from the defendant was not given in 96 per cent of these cases. The Conciliation boards made other judgments in 20 000 cases in 2001. Attempts at mediation were in vain in more than 4 000 disputes, while statement were accepted in the remaining 16 000 cases.

The parties were reconciled in less than 7 000 cases, or a little more than 3 per cent of the total number of civil disputes.

Less than 2 per cent of the total amount of cases in the Conciliation boards, or 4 000 cases were referred to the courts.