Mediation is a safe process expressly promoted by the courts and the Civil Procedure Rules, which govern the management of court actions. It provides a fast and flexible route to resolving legal disputes. This means that parties have nothing to lose from entering into mediation and can potentially save time, resources and money rather than undergoing lengthy legal proceedings.

Mediation may be entered into at any time in a legal dispute, with the aim of securing a binding agreement between parties. However should an agreement not be reached then the parties are free to pursue other avenues, and the content of the mediation process cannot be used against either party in the subsequent legal proceedings.

However, if a party fails to consider mediation or unreasonably rejects a proposal to mediate then the courts have the discretion to penalize that party in any later award of legal costs.

Whether you are a business director with a commercial dispute, an individual with a personal dispute, a partner in a professional organisation or are facing a conflict in another context, mediation is a very realistic option for resolving your dispute.

We work to find practical solutions which all parties can accept.

Why mediate? What have you got to lose?

The risks and benefits of mediation:

Risks Benefits
Possibility of no settlement You control all the outcomes
High success rates
Fast & flexible process
Modest costs
Confidential Environment
No precedents set
Your legal rights remain unchanged
Agreed solutions can preserve trading relationships

 

Family & Relationship Breakdowns

Whilst we provide a mediation service for commercial and civil law, for family law, including divorce, separation and children’s issues, we refer onto specialist family mediators or collaborative lawyers.

Collaborative law is a new approach to divorce proceedings under which family lawyers manage the separation process in a more dignified and non-confrontational way.

We can refer you to specialist independent family law mediators.

If you would like to have an informal discussion about the possibility of using colaborative law to resolve a family breakdown, you can either complete the contact me form or telephone collaborative lawyer Lyn Brisley via the switchboard  number at the top of the page.

International mediation

We have experience of mediating disputes involving parties from overseas, either for or against UK domiciled persons or businesses or involving UK based assets or contracts subject to English law.

If you are an overseas party to a dispute or a foreign lawyer please do contact us for an informal discussion on options for using mediation to resolve your dispute.

Starting a mediation

If you wish to mediate you can:

  • Contact your opponent, suggest mediation nominating us as your preferred mediators, and we will work with both parties to agree dates and venues;
  • Contact us, let us have details of your dispute and your opponent and we will contact your opponent to see if we can secure agreement to mediate;
  • Request a stay (suspension of the action) from the court to allow mediation to take place, if you have live court proceedings.

In all cases you can call or email us for informal guidance or to check mediator availability on specific dates.