The city is looking to establish China's first local legal conciliation system aimed at the timely settlement of disputes outside of the courtroom.

Similar to the alternative dispute resolution system (ADR) in some Western countries, the Shanghai prototype focuses on early neutral evaluation, arbitration and other forms of mediation to resolve civil disputes.

"But it needs a process and time to develop," said Hu Ronggen, deputy director of the Shanghai Judicial Bureau.

Hu said disputes among individuals, between residents and businesses and between individuals and officials are growing as China moves towards a market economy from its traditional planned economy.

Most common are disputes involving payment of wages inarrears, pensions, refunds of medical fees, conflicts caused by residential relocation, environmental pollution and family problems.

"The disputes caused by housing relocation have become a critical factor threatening social stability. Disputes in some businesses have also led to tensions between employees and employers," Hu said.

"If these disputes are not settled in a timely and reasonable fashion, they affect the city's social stability and safety."

The local judicial sector is expected to receive more than 60,000 dispute cases by the end of this year, a number that greatly surpasses the courts' ability to settle if their annual 100,000 cases of the kind are included.

"Mediators are suffering severe challenges when faced with the fast-growing number of cases. They are seeking new ways to deal with them," said Niu Min, the bureau's grass-roots division chief.

The city is considering establishing a network to push forward the conciliation work, Niu said.

The network will consist of conciliation guidance committees at the city and district levels, conciliation boards in 229 neighbourhoods, townships and towns, and mediators at residents' committees.

According to Hu, the bureau has set up conciliation institutions in the associations of consumers, private enterprises and property management.

A total of 268 lawyers, notaries, legal workers and government officials have been engaged as chief mediators to lead their colleagues in settling 55,579 disputes free of charge.

The city government has worked out a plan to fund the growth of local mediators.

"The goal is to train them, step by step, into professional social workers, as foreign countries have done," Hu said.

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