- Explores the meaning and significance of Churchill v Merthyr Borough Council, where it was held a judge can order parties to mediate. This overturned Halsey.
- Asserts the decision leaves several issues yet to be resolved.
Mediation is firmly established on these shores and well-integrated into the civil justice system. With the origins of this embedding found in Lord Woolf’s reforms (Harry Woolf, Access to justice: final report (1996), mediation has since expanded through court-annexed pilot schemes, via judicial promotion and robust encouragement in the form of cost sanctions for unreasonable refusals to mediate, and most recently through the government’s intention to introduce ‘automatic referral’ to mediation for small claims disputes (Government response to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation, Increasing the use of mediation in the civil justice system, September 2023). Automatic referral to mediation (in essence, compulsion) has also been proposed for family disputes (MoJ consultation, Supporting earlier resolution
