诉讼太多，法院压力大，法官压力大。那么多案子，就那点精力，吃不消啊！当事人、代理人的压力也跟着大，那么多案子要立进去，法院案多人少，得排队啊！昆明各区法院门口等待立案排起的长龙，与做核酸的那条，也不相上下呀！不，是有过之而无不及！一道并不靓丽的风景。案子立进去就万事大吉了吗？NO!NO!NO!排期开庭，耐性差一点，您会说几乎等同于遥遥无期。法院的门，真的不好进。这话我没恶意啊！您可不要自己想歪啦。

那有了纠纷怎么办？找调解啊！民间纠纷，找人民调解。

 

 

    把非诉讼解决纠纷挺在前面，把调解挺在前面，是当前全社会对矛盾纠纷多元化解和社会治理方式的普遍共识。《云南省矛盾纠纷多元化解条例》第二条第二款规定，“本条例所称矛盾纠纷多元化解，是指通过和解、调解、公证、仲裁、行政裁决、行政复议、诉讼等多种矛盾纠纷化解方式，构建非诉讼与诉讼方式有机衔接、协调联动的矛盾纠纷化解机制，为当事人提供多样、高效、便捷的矛盾纠纷解决途径和服务。”根据该规定，调解是多元化解矛盾纠纷的重要渠道和手段之一。《条例》第四条规定，“矛盾纠纷多元化解工作应当公平、公正、高效，遵循下列原则：（一）尊重当事人意愿；（二）和解、调解优先；（三）预防与化解相结合；（四）不违背法律法规、国家政策和公序良俗。”根据该规定，调解是矛盾纠纷多元化解诸多方式中应当挺在前面的最优先方式之一，与当事人自行和解，放在同等优先的位置。

    细心的读者已经发现：调解不能等同于人民调解。是的，没错。调解从主体上分为人民调解、行政调解（治安行政调解是其中之一）、司法调解、仲裁调解、行业调解和商事调解机构的调解，从案件性质上可分为行政争议调解、劳动争议调解、民间纠纷调解和商事调解。

    根据《人民调解法》第二条规定，“本法所称人民调解，是指人民调解委员会通过说服、疏导等方法，促使当事人在平等协商基础上自愿达成调解协议，解决民间纠纷的活动。”根据该规定，人民调解的主体是人民调解委员会，调解内容是民间纠纷。根据《人民调解法》第七条，“人民调解委员会是依法设立的调解民间纠纷的群众性组织。”

    因此，在发生民间纠纷以后，在国家和社会层面，要把非诉讼解决矛盾纠纷挺在前面，把调解挺在前面；作为基层群众工作组织，要把人民调解挺在前面。作为普通老百姓，发生民间纠纷以后，要把通过人民调解解决民间纠纷挺在前面，挂在嘴边，记在心里。

    本文为普法短文，为行文简洁，方便阅读，在本文后续涉及人民调解时，存在与治安调解和商事调解交叉融合之处，笔者不刻意辨析，后续需要再作计较。

 

 

 

    首先是就近解决。《云南省矛盾纠纷多元化解条例》第二十条规定，“乡（镇）人民政府、街道办事处、村（居）民委员会依法设立的人民调解委员会调解民间纠纷，健全调解工作制度，及时、就地化解矛盾纠纷。” 《人民调解法》第二十一条第二款也规定，“ 调解民间纠纷，应当及时、就地进行，防止矛盾激化。”就地就近化解与远途车马劳顿寻求化解，地利优势显而易见。大老远出门解决纠纷，与到远方去旅游看风景，它不是一种心情，不是一种感受。

    其次是程序简易。对老百姓而言，人民调解通俗易懂，融入性强，参与度高。有这么个案子，驾驶员（承运人，调解申请人）前往货主（托运人，调解被申请人）处讨要剩余运输费2500元，短暂占据货主叉车。后驾驶员报警，派出所出警处理，将驾驶员移交弘石律所驻昆明经开区辖区派出所联合调解室调解员调处。调解员听取驾驶员事实陈述并办理调解立案手续后，决定电话远程调解。经与货主电话沟通，货主辩解因驾驶员承运货物发生短货，需要核实以后才能付款，且驾驶员占用货主叉车，对货主造成损失。后经核实，货物短缺事实不能认定，占据叉车事实货主予以确认。经对驾驶员现场调解，经两次与物流中介电话沟通，向其了解案件情况，并请其对货主劝解，经两次与货主电话沟通、劝解，最终帮助双方达成口头调解协议并予以履行完毕：货主通过物流中介以微信转账方式于当天向驾驶员支付运费1000元，于三天内支付剩余1500元。

 

 

    在立法层面，除前述《云南省矛盾纠纷多元化解条例》第二十条、《人民调解法》第二十一条第二款规定了人民调解应当遵循及时调解的原则之外，在《人民调解法》第一条关于立法宗旨的规定中，就明确规定了立法目的之一就是为了及时解决民间纠纷。《人民调解法》第二十六条还规定，“人民调解员调解纠纷，调解不成的，应当终止调解，并依据有关法律、法规的规定，告知当事人可以依法通过仲裁、行政、司法等途径维护自己的权利。”因此，调解不能成功的案件，在立法层面，也不提倡久拖不决，而应当以调解不成功为由适时终止案件调解。据笔者了解，在实践层面，人民调解处理民间纠纷，大多当场立案，当场调解，大多一次调解成功并当场履行，极少有三五个月久调不决案件发生。

 

 

    《人民调解法》第四条规定，“人民调解委员会调解民间纠纷，不收取任何费用。”调解不收费，而到法院起诉，要交诉讼费；到仲裁委仲裁，要交仲裁费。您看，调解解决民间纠纷的成本优势跃然纸上，落地钱包。除了省下调解费，还可能省去律师费用。很多纠纷，就是点小额经济纠纷。金额有多小？您想都想不到，一个5元钱的高速公路通行费由谁负担的打车费纠纷，法律上规范的叫法是客运合同纠纷，还真找到人民调解组织了，最后也调解成功了。这种小额纠纷，通过那些收取费用的纠纷解决渠道解决问题，实在是不划算。在能够利国家公共法律服务资源解决自己矛盾纠纷的情况下，合理合法地薅一点国家的羊毛，享受一下国家的福利，何乐而不为呢？与人民调解解决争议相比，通过诉讼解决问题，专业性更强，技术难度更高，对律师法律服务的需求更强，相对于小额民间纠纷而言，律师费真的不便宜。因此，通过人民调解解决民间纠纷，还可以把金额不菲的律师费也省下来。

 

   《人民调解法》第十七条规定，“当事人可以向人民调解委员会申请调解；人民调解委员会也可以主动调解。当事人一方明确拒绝调解的，不得调解。”第十八条规定，“基层人民法院、公安机关对适宜通过人民调解方式解决的纠纷，可以在受理前告知当事人向人民调解委员会申请调解。”根据这些规定，当事人一方申请调解的，对方当事人同意调解即可调解。当事人双方均未主动申请调解的，人民调解组织也可以主动调解，当事人同意调解和接受调解就能调解。刚才说的是法律层面。在事实层面，人民调解员，大多古道热肠，把人民的重托放在心上，把当事人的小事当做大事，把当事人的大事当做天大的事，会想方设法、千方百计、千言万语，化解矛盾，促成和解，解决纠纷。

 

    有的当事人，具有自主主观能动性。有这么一对当事人，来到联合调解室，不愿意作调解立案登记，不愿意暴露隐私，不愿意麻烦人民调解，说暂时不要调解，由其双方自行沟通，自行和解。最终，他们自行当场达成和解协议，向人民调解员和派出所值班人员告知自行和解后，轻松愉快地重回正常生活、工作轨道了。有的当事人，需要在调解组织或调解员的指导下主观能动地解决争议。有这么一对当事人，系在农贸市场各自卖猪肉的两位摊主，一位老伙子，一位小伙子，摊位背靠背。他们因为平时一些鸡毛蒜皮的小事——冰柜放置碍人出入啦，砍肉的飞溅物溅到小孩身上啦，诸如此类——发生肢体冲突，引发纠纷。治安调解过程中，双方均从内心深处认识到各自的错误，也表现出调解解决矛盾纠纷的强烈意愿，案件也不涉及赔偿，受伤稍重的老伙子就是要个赔礼道歉。小伙子却表现得搓脚捻手，羞于道歉。弘石律所驻点调解员借机主动介入，配合治安案件调解的警官，共同调解。弘石律所调解员说：双方都是大男人，敢做敢当，赔个礼，道个歉，多大个事呀？同一个市场背靠背做生意，抬头不见低头见，话明气散好？还是窝着一肚子鬼火眼不见心不烦好？哪个有错，哪个道歉；双方有错，互相道歉。话音才落，已经根据警官要求面对面站立准备道歉但难以启齿的双方，都心有所动。小伙子主动道歉，老伙子接受道歉；老伙子接着道歉，小伙子接受道歉。双方先是互相拱拱手，接着握握手。非常经典的一个以和为贵的调解宣传片经典画面，只可惜没法拍下来。

既然人民调解这么亲民，这么方便，这么及时，这么省钱，这么好使，您还等什么呢？民间纠纷当事人。

 

 

 

   Too many litigations result in a lot of pressure on courts and judges. It is overwhelmed to solve so many litigations with so little energy. There are so many cases but insufficient staff in the court, a large number of cases need to be filed resulting a long line, which lead to a lot of pressure on the parties and the agents. The long lines of people waiting to file cases at the gate of the courts of each district in Kunming are not far from the line for nucleic acid testing！No, it is more than that and is not a beautiful sight. Is it that everything is fine if the case is filed? NO!NO!NO! Court sessions need to be scheduled. If you are less patient, you would say it almost equates to not seeing the future. Enter the door of the court is very tough. I don't mean any malice when I say the words. Don't take it the wrong way.

So what should we do if there is a dispute? Seek mediation! Disputes among the people should seek people's mediation first.

 

 

    Disputes should first be resolved by using non-litigation or mediation methods, which is the current general consensus of the whole society on the diversified resolution of conflicts and disputes and social governance approach. Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the Regulations on Diversified Resolution of Conflicts and Disputes in Yunnan Province stipulates that “The term ‘diversified resolution of conflicts and disputes’ as mentioned in this Regulation refers to through reconciliation, mediation, notarization, arbitration, administrative ruling,        administrative reconsideration, litigation and other ways of resolving conflicts and disputes, build a mechanism for resolving conflicts and disputes that is organically linked and coordinated between non-litigation and litigation methods, and provide diverse, efficient and convenient ways and services for parties to resolve conflicts and disputes.” According to the regulation, mediation is one of the important channels and means to resolve conflicts and disputes in a diversified manner. Article 4 of the Regulation stipulates that “the work of diversified resolution of conflicts and disputes shall be fair, just and efficient, and follow the following principles: a)respecting the will of the parties; b)giving priority to   reconciliation and mediation; c)combining prevention with resolution; d)complying with laws, regulations, and national policies, and respecting public order or good morals.” According to the regulation, mediation is one of the most priority ways among the many ways of diversified resolution of conflicts and disputes , and is given equal priority with the parties' own reconciliation.  

    Careful readers have already noticed: mediation cannot be equated with people's mediation. Yes, that's right. Mediation is composed of people's mediation, administrative mediation (public security administrative mediation is one of them), judicial mediation, arbitration mediation, industry mediation and mediation by commercial mediation institutions from the subject. It also can be composed of administrative dispute mediation, labor dispute mediation，mediation of dispute among the people and commercial mediation from the nature of the case.

According to Article 2 of the People's Mediation Law that “The term ‘people's mediation’ as mentioned in this Law refers to a process that a people's mediation commission persuades the parties concerned to a dispute into reaching a mediation agreement on the basis of equal negotiation and free will and thus solves the dispute between them.” According to the regulation, the subject of people's mediation is the People's Mediation Committee, the content of mediation is a dispute among the people. According to Article 7 of the People's Mediation Law that “People's mediation commissions are mass-based organizations legally formed to settle disputes among the people.”

    Therefore, after the occurrence of disputes among the people, non-litigation and mediation should be given priority at the state and social levels. People's mediation should also be prioritized for grass-roots mass work organizations. After a dispute among people, common people should first solve the dispute through people's mediation, and should put people's mediation on the lips and in the hearts.

This article is a short article for popularizing the law, to achieve the goal of conciseness and easy to read. Therefore, in the subsequent part of this paper referring people's mediation, there is cross-fertilization with public security mediation and commercial mediation, which the author does not deliberately distinguish and analyze, if there is a need to identify later, we will do so.

 

 

   The first is the proximity solution. The Regulations on Diversified Resolution of Conflicts and Disputes in Yunnan Province Article 20 provides that “People’s mediation commissions established legally by villages (towns) people's governments, subdistrict offices, villagers’  (neighborhood) committees mediate disputes among the people, improve the mediation work system, resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner and on the spot.” Article 21, paragraph 2 of the People's Mediation Law also provides that “The disputes among the people shall be mediated in a timely manner and on the spot so as to prevent the intensification of disputes.” The advantages of resolving disputes in a timely manner and on the spot are obvious, compared to seeking resolution from a distant place. Go away to resolve disputes and travel to faraway places to see the scenery, which are not the same mood and feelings.

The second is the simplicity of the procedure. For common people, people's mediation is easy to understand, well integrated and highly participatory. For example, the driver (the carrier, the mediation applicant) went to the cargo owner (the consignor, the mediation respondent) to ask for the remaining transportation fee of 2,500 yuan and briefly occupied the cargo owner's forklift. Later, the driver called the police, the police from the police station affiliated to Kunming Economic and Technological Development Zone handled the case and handed over the driver to the mediator of the joint mediation room, where the G-stone Law Firm stationed in the police station. After listening to the driver's statement of facts and handling mediation filing procedures, the mediator decided to mediate remotely by phone. After telephone communication with the cargo owner, the cargo owner argued that the quantity of cargo carried by the driver may insufficient, so it needs to verify before payment. And the driver occupied the cargo owner’s forklift, which caused him damages. After verification, the fact of shortage of goods could not be identified， but it was confirmed that the owner’s forklift has been occupied.  After on-site mediation to the driver and telephone communication twice with the logistics intermediary to understand the case and ask him to persuade the cargo owner，and after telephone communication and persuasion twice with the cargo owner, finally the mediator helped the two sides to reach an oral mediation agreement and be fulfilled: the cargo owner paid 1,000 yuan to the driver on that day through the logistics intermediaries by WeChat and paid the remaining 1,500 yuan within three days.

 

 

    At the legislative level, in addition to the aforementioned Article 20 of the Regulations on Diversified Resolution of Conflicts and Disputes in Yunnan Province and the second paragraph of Article 21 of the People's Mediation Law, which stipulate that people's mediation shall follow the principle of timely mediation, in Article 1 of the People's Mediation Law on the purpose of legislation, it is clearly stated that one of the purposes of legislation is timely solve disputes among people. Article 26 of the People's Mediation Law also provides that “If the mediation efforts fail, the people's mediators shall terminate the mediation process and, pursuant to the relevant laws and regulations, notify the parties concerned that they may protect their rights by arbitration, administrative means or judicial means.” Therefore, in the legislative level, the case which the mediation can not be successful also does not advocate to delay for a long time, but should be terminated due to it's unsuccessful. In the author's views, at the practical level, when handling disputes among the people through people's mediation, most of which can be filed on the spot and mediated on the spot. Most of them can be successfully mediated and performed on the spot just once and there are very few cases that have been pending for three or five months.

 

 

    Article 4 of the People's Mediation Law provides that “People's mediation commissions may not charge fees for the mediation of disputes among the people.” Mediation is free, but you have to pay the litigation fee when you go to court for sue; you have to pay the arbitration fee when you go to the arbitration commission for arbitration. Therefore, the cost advantage of mediation in resolving disputes among the people is obvious. Not only can you save on mediation fees, but you can also save on attorney fees. Many of the disputes are very small financial disputes. How small is the amount? You can't even imagine that a dispute about whoever should pay 5 yuan highway tolls for taxi fares, which is legally regulated as a passenger transport contract dispute. It seeked for a people's mediation organization and finally mediated successfully. It is really not cost effective to resolve such small disputes through dispute resolution channels for charging fees. In the case of solving our own conflicts and disputes with the state's public legal service resources, why not enjoy the welfare of the state by reasonably and legally pulling out the country's wool? Compared with people's mediation to resolve disputes, solving problems through litigation is more professional, more technically demanding and the demand for legal services of lawyers is stronger, and lawyer fees are really not cheap compared to small claims disputes among the people. Therefore, resolving disputes among the people through people's mediation can save the expensive lawyer's fees as well.

 

 

    First, it is reflected as the subjective initiative of the people's mediation organization or the people's mediator. Article 17 of the People's Mediation Law provides that “The parties concerned to a dispute may apply to a people's mediation commission for mediation, and a people's mediation commission may also voluntarily offer to mediate. However, no mediation may be made if one party has expressly refused to settle the dispute by mediation.” Article 18 provides that “For a dispute solvable by mediation, the grassroots people's court or the public security organ concerned may, before accepting the case, notify the parties concerned that they can apply to a people's mediation commission for mediating the dispute.” According to these provisions, if one of the parties applies for mediation, the other party agrees to mediate, then the dispute can be mediated. If both parties do not take the initiative to apply for mediation, the people's mediation organization can also take the initiative to mediate, only needing the consent and acceptance of the parties. What just described is the legal level. At the factual level, people's mediators, most of whom are warm-hearted, keep important matters entrusted by the people in mind, treat the parties' small matters as big matters, treat the parties' big matters as utmost important matters. They will find all kinds of means and say all kinds of words to resolve conflicts, facilitate reconciliation and handle disputes.

    Second, it is reflected as the subjective initiative of the parties. Some parties have subjective initiative autonomously. For example, a couple of parties who came to the joint mediation room but were not willing to make mediation registration, because unwilling to expose their privacy and bother people's mediation organizations, they said not to mediate temporarily and want to communicate and reconcile on their own. Eventually, they reached a reconciliation on the spot by themselves and informed the people's mediator and the police station officer on duty that they had reconciled on their own,  then returned to their normal life and work with ease and happiness. Other parties need to resolve their disputes subjectively and actively under the guidance of the mediation organizations or mediators. There are a couple of parties who are two stall owners, an elder man and a younger man, selling pork respectively at a farmers' market, and their stalls are back-to-back. They have physical confrontations and disputes due to some usual minor matters, such as freezer placement obstructing access, splatter from chopped meat on children etc. And physical conflicts and disputes occurred due to these things. In the process of security mediation, both parties recognized their mistakes from the heart and showed a strong willingness to mediate to resolve the conflict and dispute as well. The case does not involve compensation, the elder man who was slightly injured just want an apology. The younger man looked anxious and was ashamed to apologize. The G-stone Law Firm's mediator took the opportunity to proactively intervene and worked with the police officer who mediated the security case. The G-stone law firm's mediator said: both sides are adult men, must have the guts to stand by it. Apology is not a big deal. Doing business back-to-back in the same market, have to see each other every day. Apologizing and forgiving, or persisting in oneself’s errors and do not communicate with each other, which one is better?  Which one is wrong, which one should apologize; if both sides are wrong, they will apologize to each other. The words were just dropped, both parties, who were already standing face to face at the officer's request and ready to apologize but had difficulty saying so, were persuaded to apology. The younger man apologized initiatively, the elder man accepted the apology; then the elder man apologized, the younger man accepted the apology. Both sides first arched their hands to each other, followed by a handshake. This is a very classical image of a classic mediation propaganda of peace in mind. It's a pity that could not be photographed.

    People's mediation is people-friendly, convenient, timely, money-saving and effective. What are you waiting for? Parties of disputes among the people.

本期撰稿：汪卫平

本期译稿：解佳、张 川

本期编辑：汪靖龙