Justin Michaelson updates the need-to-know guide to ADR…a decade on
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In legal parlance, the concept of “ADR” has changed over the past 10 years. Post-Woolf, “ADR” or alternative dispute resolution was shorthand for everything but litigation. Even arbitration was seen as one “alternative”. It was the buzzword for how best to clear up the court lists and encourage litigants to look elsewhere to resolve disputes. There was no specific distinction between non-binding and binding adjudicative and non-adjudicative processes. Times have changed. “ADR” as a concept encompasses non-binding and non-adjudicative methods of dispute resolution, the most common being mediation. It most definitely does not now include arbitration. “ADR” is now an aspiration, a drive away from dispute, providing the antidote to the world of litigation lawyers. The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and the International Institute for Conflict Preventation and Resolution (CPR) launched recently a “Corporate ADR Pledge” comprising a commitment to apply resources to managing and resolving disputes through negotiation, mediation and other ADR processes, with a view to establishing and practising “global, sustainable dispute management and resolution processes”.
