In July, the government announced it intends to go ahead with plans for mandatory mediation for all defended Pt 7 civil claims in the county court (mainly claims valued at less than £10,000), with a plan subsequently to extend this to larger claims worth up to £25,000.
So far so good, but will this lead to mandatory mediation for larger commercial claims in the High Court? Penny puts forward a strong case against such a move, citing convincing reasons why this should not happen, including that High Court cases ‘can involve hundreds of pages of pleadings, thousands of documents in disclosure, and multiple witnesses (both factual and expert)’. Moreover, the decision as to when to mediate is ‘part of a litigant’s litigation strategy’—mandatory mediation risks not only ruining the chess moves but wasting costs, generating additional case conferences and trespassing into the territory of client privilege.
