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08 October 2021 / Tony Allen
Issue: 7951 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , ADR , Mediation
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The final demise of Halsey?

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In an exclusive series of updates for NLJ, Tony Allen presents an alternative thesis on the shape of future dispute resolution
  • Post-Halsey, can a court order parties to mediate against their will?
  • What is the current position in relation to court-ordered dispute resolution (DR).

The law relating to mediation has for many years felt dominated by the Court of Appeal judgment in Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust [2004] EWCA Civ 576, [2004] 4 All ER 920. It dates from 2004, two years after another dramatic Court of Appeal decision—Dunnett v Railtrack plc (in railway administration) [2002] EWCA Civ 303, [2002] 2 All ER 850—when for the first time a winning party’s refusal to mediate was sanctioned as unreasonable litigation conduct (CPR 44.2). Halsey purported to generate authoritative guidance on two main topics:

(i) Can a court order parties to mediate against their will? And

(ii) On what basis might a costs sanction be imposed on a winning party who had unreasonably

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