Title: Mediation Outcomes: Lawyers' Experience with Commercial and Construction Mediation in the United Kingdom
Abstract: This paper reports on the final phase of a three-year study into the role of lawyers in the development of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) following the implementation of the Civil Procedure Rules in 1999 and draws comparisons between US and Canadian studies. The paper centres on the use of mediation, which is recognised as the pre-eminent ADR process in the UK.' Data are analysed from 30 interviews with specialist commercial and construction-related lawyers who have utilised in the dispute resolution process. Interviewees were selected from respondents to a national survey of lawyers specialising in commercial and construction-related practice. Whereas reaching settlement is typically regarded as the measure of success, this research focuses on other mediation outcomes experienced by solicitors and barristers, the majority of whom are repeat-users of the process. The data reveal that achieving settlement in a timely and cost-effective manner is among the chief advantages has over litigation, but a number of other benefits can make the process an eligible option in dispute resolution. In particular, the process of allows the parties to focus on or narrow the issues in dispute. Lawyerinterviewees also report tactical advantages from engaging in mediation. These range from providing the opportunity to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the case to testing witnesses and evidence. The data suggest lawyers are developing new practices in mediation, such as proposing the process in order to provide proof to the courts of willingness to compromise or participating in in order to send messages to the opposition. Mediator-interviewees * Principal Lecturer in Law, School of Legal Studies, University of Wolverhampton, Molineux Street, Wolverhampton WVI 1SB, e-mail address: [email protected]. ** Professional Support Lawyer to the Construction Practice Group at the London office of White & Case and Visiting Professor of Law, Oxford Brookes University. i. P. Brooker and A. Lavers, Issues in the Development of ADR for Commercial and Construction Disputes, 19 CIV. JUST. Q. 353, 353-70 (2000). 1 Brooker and Lavers: Mediation Outcomes: Lawyers' Experience with Commercial and Const Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2005 report a trend in where cases are more difficult to settle and the participants more cognisant of tactics.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 4
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