header-logo header-logo

Where now for ADR?

20 June 2019 / Bryan Clark
Issue: 7845 / Categories: Features , Profession , ADR , Mediation
printer mail-detail

Bryan Clark reflects on oversupply in the market & commends the Civil Justice Council proposals for change

  • A joined-up approach is likely to produce the most effective results for ensuring a successful ADR future.

It is some four decades since mediation and other emerging processes from the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement of 1960s US began to impact upon these shores. Significant strides have since been made. Training programmes are legion. Mediation has been embedded within civil court rules since the Woolf Reforms were enacted in the late 1990s. A glut of pilot, in-court mediation schemes has been introduced. Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) are an established feature of family justice.

Yet mediation still, perhaps represents an opportunity lost. Supply outstrips demand. Misunderstanding of the process continues unabated. Barriers to development remain to be surmounted. Matters are not straightforward, however. Wider policy issues and controversies are at play. While excessive adversarialism can lead to economic waste and emotional distress for litigants, the imposition of ADR may jar with fundamental rights

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

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll