The Hong Kong Court of First Instance has in Lincoln Air Conditioning & Engineering Co Ltd and another v Chan Ping Fai Ricky and others invoked the new Mediation Ordinance which came into effect on 1 January 2013. For background on the Mediation Ordinance see our previous post.
The Court struck out parts of a defence and evidence contained in an affidavit on the basis that they contained information exchanged during a mediation and were protected by the confidentiality provisions in section 9 of the Mediation Ordinance. Pursuant to section 9 a mediation communication may only be admitted in evidence with leave of the court. It is interesting that the plaintiff had raised objections about inclusion of the material earlier in the proceedings and made the application to expunge the material under section 9 shortly after the Mediation Ordinance came into effect. This case illustrates that the Mediation Ordinance has retrospective effect and applies to mediations that took place before 1 January 2013. Please contact Gareth Thomas or Pamela Kiesselbach in our Hong Kong office for more information.