David Watkinson examines proposals to establish a Housing Complaints Resolution Service (HCRS) as put forward by the Government Introduction The recent Mediation World newsletter included an article by Bill Marsh (8/2/2019) headed “Housing dispute resolution proposals will impact developers” (and landlords as it appeared). A planning law expert was quoted as describing the proposals as […]
ADR and Civil Justice – Paving the Way?
David Watkinson looks at the Civil Justice Council’s report dated November 2018 Introduction Last December (2018) the Civil Justice Council published “ADR and Civil Justice” – the Final Report of its ADR Working Group. The 6 man (I mean that) group included 3 practising mediators, one being the Chair, and are all persons of distinction. […]
AGREEING TO MEDIATE – BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
A signed agreement is final
One of the attractions of mediation is that those involved in a dispute reach resolution and end it in a legally binding agreement, often a Tomlin order. The recent case of Johal v Elm Property Finance Ltd, decided by May J on 13 March 2018, had to consider the circumstances in which a Tomlin order […]
Dispute Systems Design (DSD) – ADR activism
DSD isn’t new. William Ury and colleagues in Harvard over 35 years ago developed a new possibility of resolving industry disputes based on mutual interests. On 8th February 2018 at Kings College, Dr Diego Faleck described the practical impact of designing a relatively recent dispute resolution system in Brazil following the plane crash on 17 July 2007 in which 199 people tragically […]
Mediation competitions encourage confidence
The Civil Justice Council’s ADR Working Party produced its ADR Interim Report last October, appropriately during Mediation Awareness Week. Within the Report is the recognition that there is a challenge to make ADR ‘culturally normal’. One way of trying to achieve this is to ensure that today’s students – including law students – are very […]
ADR and Civil Justice
Mediation Awareness Week (MAW), in case you missed it, happened between 14th – 20th October. This was its second year and it included a range of events across a number of sectors listed here. For example the panel of speakers at the Medical Mediation Foundation event looked at the ethics as well as the practicalities of […]
Mediate your Dispute!
Most people who find themselves in a dispute want to find a solution as quickly, cheaply and easily as possible. Litigation is rarely that solution: disputes can take over parties’ lives and the cost is high, in terms of money, time and wellbeing. Whatever the value or the complexity of the dispute, it is likely […]
CMC Annual Conference: ‘Meeting Needs, Making Life Better’
The Christchurch experience made graphic sense of this year’s title for the annual Civil Mediation Council (‘CMC’) conference. Geoff Sharpe from New Zealand set out the role of mediation following the Christchurch earthquake in 2010. Disputes had arisen between home owners and insurers and focused on whether property would be restored or completely rebuilt. Undoubtedly […]
Refuse to mediate? “How very dare you”.
“How dare you suggest mediation?? Why should I? Don’t you know the other side is blatantly in the wrong?” This is what parties in dispute sometimes say. The hike in court fees hasn’t necessarily made mediation more appealing. The Court is however continuing to communicate its disapproval of a party’s conduct where it ignores or refuses a request to mediate. Master Simons made […]
