header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
21 June 2012 / Tony Allen
Issue: 7519 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Mediation , Damages , ADR
printer mail-detail

A matter of trust

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Should mediators (& mediation) be trusted? Tony Allen reports

An article in NLJ last September asked if mediators can be legally trusted, and this needs an answer (“Can you trust a mediator?” NLJ, 23 September 2011, p 1288).

During a mediation of a reasonable provision claim from an artist’s estate, the mediator brought to the claimant the defendants’ offer of a cash sum plus one of the deceased’s painting, saying that the painting had been professionally valued at £80,000 “If sold at auction”, producing a written valuation obtained by the defendants the previous day. The offer was accepted by the claimant “in reliance on the mediator’s representation that the valuation was a market valuation” (see Clay v Lenkiewicz Foundation (Plymouth County Court 9PL05124)).

However, the valuation was for insuring the cost of purchasing a similar painting if lost or destroyed, rather higher than market value, so the claimant started fresh proceedings, seeking damages over the allegedly material misrepresentation which induced the mediated settlement.

The new proceedings settled before

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Your magistrates’ court needs you!
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
NLJ this week: Clarity on whistleblowing, settlements and tribunal limits
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll