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Save £££ - Get a Mediator involved
Written by: Antony Marquis
Adams firmly believes in the power of mediation, particularly in large or complex disputes. As Adams’ in-house Mediator I have recently been involved in a High Court Chancery Action which was scheduled to last for at least four days. The case concerned a commercial dispute with several parties involved and the collective costs were set to exceed hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The parties agreed to go to a one day mediation. The mediation started at 10am and by mid afternoon an agreement had been reached in principle with the rest of the afternoon spent in refining the settlement order. The parties saved thousands of pounds in legal costs, not to mention opportunity costs from time spent in Court and will hopefully go on to do more business with each other in the future.
In another case I was the sole Mediator between a father and son who had fallen out some years ago. The father was elderly and suffering from the early stages of a debilitating mental condition. He had sued his son for a variety of claims including trespass and return of goods. When I arrived the parties insisted they wouldn’t be in the same room as each other and explained they hadn’t spoken for over a year. Despite this, three hours later the case settled and the father and son had agreed that they would begin to contact each other again; particularly poignant given the father’s age and health.
Given the power of mediation and the requirement of all cases to now be referred to mediation before trial, at Adams we try to use mediation wherever possible. Mediation, as you can see, can be a powerful tool to settle disputes at any early stage and often before Court proceedings are issued. Additionally mediation can result in agreements that courts would not be able to grant and mediation proceedings are confidential.
If you have a dispute that you would like to engage a Mediator to resolve, please contact Antony Marquis on amarquis@adamslaw.co.uk or 020 7790 2000.
