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So now we have scope to use offers and rejections of ADR tactically. Will we lawyers never learn that making things more complicated always costs the clients more money. The winners always believed that their interpretation of the contract was the correct interpretation. At trial the judge agreed with them. From their point of view the case was pretty much open and shut. Open and shut cases should remain so. How much did it cost them to join in the negotiation and consider ADR dance? If yours is the correct interpretation of a document how much value can a mediator add from your point of view. Short of the mediator persuading the other party that they are wrong the only way the mediation can be 'successful' is if you make concessions which you don't believe you ought to make.

How much less would it have cost them if the Part 8 procedure had been used as I suspect it was intended to be used - simple and quick resolution of mainly paper based disputes.