ADR

The Chancellor plans to cut 15% from the civil service budget in the next five years. How would this affect the courts and justice system? In this week’s NLJ, Mark Jones, partner, and Alex Curran, senior associate, Payne Hicks Beach, look at the potential impact from a range of perspectives if the Ministry of Justice budget is cut by 15%, including the criminal courts—where the backlog is so extreme that ‘at Snaresbrook Crown Court, trials for suspects on bail are currently being listed in November 2028’.

“It remains an indispensable resource for anyone engaged in the field of arbitration”

Bats in court? It can only be the latest report from The Insider, AKA NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School.

This month, Dominic Regan covers leapfrog appeals, ‘short sharp mediation’, the role of juniors & table tennis bats in court

Mediators should not be celebrating the repeated extension of the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, according to Stuart Hanson, an FMC-accredited mediator, professional practice consultant and legal aid internal supervisor at Direct Mediation Services.

Stuart Hanson on why mediators should not be celebrating the repeated extension of an inadequate scheme

What happened in family law in the last quarter of 2024? A lot, as demonstrated by Ellie Hampson-Jones, senior associate, and Carla Ditz, knowledge development lawyer at Stewarts, authors of NLJ’s family law brief.

How will you spend your £4 Mastercard pay-out? Professor Dominic Regan, NLJ columnist, AKA 'The Insider', writes that the result of the collective action once put at £10bn and later settled for £200m renders it a ‘pointless exercise’. 

Two thirds of people are aware that family mediation is an option to help avoid court in the event of divorce or separation, but only 30% would make a family mediator their first port of call.

When the wheels are threatening to come off in negotiations, what can the mediator do? Stephen Shaw offers some top tips for getting things back on track