We recently completed an 18 month project part funded by the EU into attitudes towards ADR in business and consumer cases. Our report can be found here:
www.promediate.co.Uk/adr-roadshow
Our report supports the view that the majority of people who had not used ADR before to resolve a dispute would be willing to use it again. The majority of the disputes we dealt with also resolved. We are hoping that the MOJ implements mandatory mediation or ADR in most cases. We have also seen a growth in online mediation during coronavirus and with the new omnicron variant coming on the scene, we do not see parties going back to face to face mediation meetings soon.
It has been reported that it is taking longer for civil cases to get to trial.
MOJ statistics for July to September, show that the mean time taken for small claims to go to trial was 50.7 weeks which is more than 12 weeks longer than in the same period in 2019.
For multi and fast track cases, litigants are having to wait 70 weeks to go to trial, which is 11 weeks longer than in 2019.
The MoJ has said that “Measures put in place to help with the backlog of small claims include small claims mediation and early neutral evaluation” They obviously see the benefits that ADR bring. We have run the Manchester Mediation Pilot offering mediation by local mediators for fast track and multi track cases. It was very beneficial to the parties.
We would say that mediation should be available in Fast Track and Multi Track cases and that the parties should have to consider using it. In the meantime we remain available to assist in arranging mediations for interested parties.