Margaret Doyle is a qualified public law mediator (2005). Further accredited in special educational needs (2018) and disabilities mediation and in elder mediation (2022). Specialising in equalities issues and disputes between individuals and public bodies.
Margaret’s approach as a mediator is facilitative and rights based. Mediating claims against public bodies, including discrimination (especially disability discrimination) claims and challenges to decision-making.
Combining her work as a researcher, author with vast experience as a mediator make Margaret a good choice to assist with your dispute.
As a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Essex School of Law, she combines her rights-based mediation practice with research that explores the role of mediation and ombuds in administrative justice.
In 2022, Margaret became the first mediator in England to be certified as a specialist mediator in disputes involving older people.
Margaret wrote the first guide to appropriate dispute resolution in the UK, Advising on ADR, published in 2000 by the Advice Services Alliance, where she worked with the independent advice service to develop awareness of alternatives to litigation for social welfare issues. She worked with the Public Law Project to carry out the first UK research into mediation in judicial review (2009-11).
Her other research has included evaluations of the court-based mediation pilots in Manchester County Court (2004-06), mapping the use of informal resolution by ombud institutions (2014), a study of equality and human rights dispute resolution (for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2016-18), and young people’s participation in resolving disputes about their special educational needs and disabilities support (2019). She is a member of the Academic Panel of the Administrative Justice Council.
Margaret was one of the original panel mediators with the Disability Conciliation Service, established by the Disability Rights Commission in 2001 and practised with that service’s successor, the Equalities Mediation Service, until it closed in 2013. Since 2003 she has been an independent mediator in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and in elder mediation.
A member of the College of Mediators. Accredited under the SEND Practice Standards. Certified by the Elder Mediation International Network (EMIN).
Initial Conversations
Margaret is willing to have a confidential, informal discussion with parties prior to taking on a mediation.
To make an enquiry for Margaret’s mediation services email mediationclerks@gclaw.co.uk or fill in our enquiry form.
Publications
‘Securing therapeutic justice through mediation: the challenge of medical treatment disputes’. Jaime Lindsey, Margaret Doyle and Katarzyna Wazynska-Finck, Legal Studies, 2024
‘‘I lost yesterday’: Dementia, Mediation and Decision-making’, Margaret Doyle. Journal of Mediation Theory and Practice, vol 8-1 2024
A Place at the Table: A report on young people’s participation in resolving disputes about special educational needs and disabilities. Project Report. UK Administrative Justice Institute (2019)
Reimagining Administrative Justice: Human Rights in Small Places, with Nick O’Brien, Palgrave/Macmillan (2019)