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The review of civil litigation costs

Last week Sir Rupert Jackson published his important report "THE REVIEW OF CIVIL LITIGATION COSTS". This 584 page report finds that mediation as the principal method of ADR should be at the heart of every litigator's toolkit.

He also states that Mediation should not however be compulsory, nor should parties automatically be subject to sanctions if they decline to mediate. He encourages the use of the "Ungley Order" in most circumstances as a standard direction in cases that have been issued, but believes that mediation should actually be more widely attempted pre-litigation.

One of the other points raised by Sir Rupert is that there needs to be a much greater education of the general public, court users, lawyers, businesses, and Judges of the benefits of mediation. (The whole report can be viewed at:http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/about_judiciary/cost-review/reports.htm)

It is the last point which has been at the forefront of the work ResoLex has been doing for the last 8 years. We believe that Mediation should be the first choice of businesses at times of potential disputes rather the last chance tool of litigators.

As part of our commitment to both educating businesses and providing commercially sensibly priced access to high quality mediators we launched our Mediation Schemes for professional bodies. These schemes enable professional bodies to educate their members in practical dispute avoidance measures and gives them reduced price access to mediators should a mediation be required.

Everyone in the mediation community has a responsibility to continue the education of businesses in the advantages of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and provided this commitment is carried through I see the mediation market continuing to grow, but importantly become more commonly accessed directly by businesses rather than just late during the litigation process.