I appreciate that your recent articles on mediation were about family mediation, but they inadvertently appear to cast a gloomy light over commercial mediation, which is actually going from strength to strength.

This is due to extraordinary success rates – 90% of all UK commercial cases settle on the day or shortly after – with minimal cost involved, and wide promotion by the government and the courts.

That said, the message is still not getting across to the very people who should be benefiting from it most: in-house lawyers. With increasing pressures on in-house legal budgets, mediation should be a no-brainer, especially as litigating can easily take two years (and disproportionate senior management time), with parties’ combined legal costs invariably dwarfing claims. Mediation, by contrast, enables businesses to bypass the uncertainties of litigation, keep disputes private and settle them speedily, added to which settlements can be binding and enforceable at court.

As it gives in-house lawyers another shot at resolving problems without appearing to be reaching for your litigator (which can be handy where there is an important relationship at stake), inserting a mediation clause into standard documentation could also make sense.

In-house lawyers should acquire the taste. They might like it.  

Andrew Hildebrand, commercial mediator, London