Courts are taking a positive step towards supporting mediation, says Martin Burns
In England and Wales the rules which regulate the civil litigation process, (the Civil Procedure Rules) encourage use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and actually impose obligations on the courts to assess the extent to which parties try to avoid ending up in court by using ADR.
Method of choice
Mediation has become the ADR method of choice for many people, and it can be very effective. It is essentially a structured negotiation, facilitated by an impartial mediator. It is often categorised as a process, which involves parties putting their cases to each other via a mediator, and through him or her, seeking an amicable resolution to their dispute.
I think of mediation, not as a process, but as a collection of techniques. Some, or all, of these techniques can be employed by an independent mediator to get disputing parties out of entrenched positions and re-focused on finding their own solutions to their particular problems. Whatever way you describe mediation, it is, at any rate, commercially sensible. It positively encourages and
