Marina Sergides examines the constraints within which a new mediation pilot will operate. Mediation has a role to play in almost every area of law and can be of great benefit to all parties involved; this includes the field of housing. The housing mediation pilot, introduced on 1 February 2021 to ease the possession claims […]
Disputes with an international dimension
Mediation: When the law encourages litigants to take the law into their own hands! By Abigail Holt We all intuitively understand the laws of nature, sod‘s law and the law of the jungle, but the reason that lawyers, judges and the complex, expensive infrastructure that accompanies them exists, is that individuals, organisations, companies, and even […]
The Balance of Power – the right to a lawyer at mediation
Kate Aubrey-Johnson considers the recent case of L Kumar v LB of Hillingdon [2020] EWHC 3326 (Admin) and its implications for SEND mediation in which Mrs Justice Collins Rice said, ‘Local authorities have huge powers over the lives of families with children who have special needs, making decisions with potentially lifelong consequences. Where parents are […]
Generalist or specialist Mediator? By Dr Mary Malecka
It is harder to be a facilitative mediator when one has specialist knowledge in the field. It is harder to stand back and divest oneself of that specialist knowledge and listen to what is being said without filtering it through one’s own knowledge and views of the subject of the mediation. Evaluative mediation, adjudication, and […]
Mediation – the rational alternative
“To remain in conflict with another defies rational scrutiny; to continue in a commercial dispute resists economic analysis” (Strasser and Randolph). Abigail Holt considers the extent to which human beings are – as The Times journalist, Caitlin Moran has suggested – “a problem-solving species”. If you were a problem-solving human looking to devise a public system to solve […]
Mediation and the Court of Protection
The extent of mediation’s use in the Court of Protection (CoP) is something of an unknown. A practitioner-led mediation scheme is currently being piloted, providing access to highly skilled mediators at legal aid rates and Dr Jaime Lindsey is currently carrying out the independent evaluation of it. The Office of the Public Guardian also recently carried […]
Online Mediation – The Mediator’s Perspective
The Coronavirus pandemic, the government imposed ‘lockdown’ and the extraordinary changes imposed on our everyday lives by social distancing measures that have come to symbolise 2020 have required a revolution in the justice system. The response of the justice system has been immense and the move to ‘remote hearings’ appears to be a culture shift […]
Advantages to Choosing to Mediate a Civil or Commercial Dispute Remotely
Members of GCM have been successfully mediating by telephone for some time. It has been considered a second-best option where costs and distance prevented the preferred option of a face to face, three room mediation in attractive rooms in Chambers. Dr Mary Malecka posts how over the past few months it has become apparent, that […]
Confidentiality – Seamless or a Thing of Shreds and Patches? By David Watkinson
Silence Glistens No More
David Watkinson considers the cost implications of not engaging with an invitation to mediate as decided by Mr Justice Griffiths in DSN v Blackpool Football Club [2020] EWCA 670 (QB) Introduction A number of blogs on this site have dealt with the costs consequences of failing to engage with mediation. The law has developed incrementally putting […]
