Types of conciliation

The Commissioner’s office offers two types of conciliation services:

• informal conciliation: where disputes are addressed between a client and lawyer over the phone, by email or in writing
• formal conciliation (otherwise known as a ‘conciliation conference’): where a client and lawyer meet to discuss, and try to resolve the issue with the help of a conciliator in attendance.

The type of conciliation that is appropriate depends on the nature of the complaint, which is determined on an individual basis by the assigned conciliator. If the client has a preferred conciliation approach then this will be taken into account.