Margaret Doyle is a SEND-accredited mediator and a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Essex School of Law and is our guest blogger for February 2020.
The normalisation of mediation
The ‘Go to Mediation’ project produced a youtube of how a dispute between Santa and the Elves can escalate – and with mediation, resolve. Its context is seasonal, the message is straight-forward; mediation provides a quicker, cheaper and less stressful, confidential process compared with litigation at court.
Civil and commercial mediation, is it time for a radical overhaul?
Kate Aubrey-Johnson explores what we can learn from the use of mediation in Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Disputes As all practising lawyers are aware, mediation provides a mechanism for resolving legal disputes. However, all too often, mediation is only considered once parties have embarked on litigation. In my experience, the earlier a dispute can […]
Ordering ADR – the Early Neutral Evaluation case
Introduction Earlier this year (February 2019) I gave a brief summary of themes arising out of the Final Report of the Civil Justice Council’s ADR Working Party “Alternative Dispute Resolution and Civil Justice“ (December 2018). The first topic was whether the courts should be able to order ADR/mediation as a precondition for any further step in […]
Legally Binding Agreements
Three pieces of news before autumn: heads of terms agreed at a mediation were found to constitute a legally binding contract between the parties in the Abberley case; the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is running a ‘proof of concept’ pilot as it decides whether to introduce formal mediation as one of its routes to dispute resolution […]
Mediation – a comparative Review
The Scottish Government – Judicial Analytical Services specifically – has undertaken a Review of evidence on mediation in civil justice systems from USA and Canada to Australia via Ireland, England and Wales. The purpose was to better understand the ‘international landscape of mediation, its operation and effectiveness’. Co-incidentally or not, there is now a proposed […]
Mediation: Participation
On 4th June 2019, two important reports were launched. Margaret Doyle’s report A Place at the Table focuses on the participation of young people with SEND in the mediation process and Charlotte May’s Court of Protection: Mediation Research considers how mediation can be used for adults who lack mental capacity to make a specific decision.
Leave the parties’ agreement in tact
Mediation, as mediators are very well aware, relies on agreement. Agreement is central to the process, from the initial agreement to mediate to, we hope, finalising the details of a Mediation Agreement. One of the powerful attractions of mediation is the parties’ control over the terms of any agreement reached, as opposed to handing control […]
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 […]
