Mediation value

I was interested to read about the recent survey on the use of mediation in commercial disputes (see [2002] Gazette, 28 March, 4).

I was not surprised to read that mediation has still a long way to go before becoming the preferred route by solicitors to resolve those disputes.

Unfortunately, the reality is that many solicitors in the UK do not fully understand exactly what mediation is and what it can achieve for their clients.

Over the Easter break, I was at a social event where I became engaged in a conversation with a solicitor about the value of mediation.

As we talked, it became evident that this solicitor only had a vague notion of what mediation was all about and in his mind he had little understanding of the mechanics of a mediation.

More than once, he confused the idea of mediation with arbitration.

One of the main bars to mediation taking hold in the UK is the education of solicitors in the value of mediation (besides other forms of alternative dispute resolution).

One way this could be remedied is to make it mandatory for all solicitors to carry out a minimum of CPD hours each year involving the learning about ADR.

At least in this way if a solicitor dismisses the use of ADR as a mode to resolve a dispute it will have been done with some knowledge of what is being dismissed.

Russell Caller, Gillhams, London, and managing director, Dispute Mediation

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