Small claims mediation success

The success of a mediation scheme for litigants in person run by Devon and Exeter Law Society is set to lead to it being adopted across the Western Circuit.

The small claims duty solicitor scheme was introduced because the number of litigants in person appearing at west country county courts had grown substantially in the previous 12 months, and delays and difficulties in the court processes were increasing as a result (see [2002] Gazette, 31 January, 4).

Under the scheme, which was successfully piloted in Exeter County Court from June, district judges send notices to litigants whose cases they feel would benefit most from mediation, informing them that the court wants them to attend mediation.

The sessions are mediated by solicitors and barristers, 15 of whom attended training in time-limited mediation, funded by the local law society.

The original plan was that if mediation was unsuccessful, litigants in person would be appointed a 'litigation friend' - a solicitor, trainee or legal executive - who would give general advice on court processes.

However, this has been unnecessary as the scheme has achieved a settlement rate of 70% in its first 70 cases.

Following a review, Judge Sean Overend, the presiding circuit judge, recommended that it should be adopted in other county courts on the circuit.

Plans are now in motion to roll out the service to Barnstaple and Truro county courts.

Devon and Exeter Law Society president Jeremy Ferguson, senior partner of Bideford-based Chanter Ferguson, said: 'The scheme has been a mind-blowing success: we estimate that it has saved over 100 hours of court time since its introduction in June.'

He added that the secret of its success may be down to the strict time limitation placed on the mediation sessions, each of which lasts just 20 minutes.

The society is also poised to make a bid to the Devon County Community Legal Service Partnership to fund a similar service at citizen advice bureaux throughout the region provided by society-trained mediators.

Victoria MacCallum