Refusing ADR is risky—but not always fatal. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed and Sanjay Dave Singh of the University of Leicester analyse Assensus Ltd v Wirsol Energy Ltd: despite repeated invitations to mediate, the defendant stood firm, made a £100,000 Part 36 offer and was ultimately ‘wholly vindicated’ at trial
With a ‘massive disparity’ between positions and settlement prospects ‘vanishingly small’, the court refused to trim costs.
The message? Courts will weigh the Halsey factors carefully. A reasoned refusal, properly recorded, may survive scrutiny.
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