Statisticians frequently count the number of lawyers per head of population. The US has about 3 times the number of lawyers per head of population than the UK – 281 v 94 per 100,000 people. Perhaps they should look at the number of mediators instead?
It seems to me that the events of the last few weeks have demonstrated a need for more mediation in society. We seem to have a divided country needing to find a compromise on Brexit. Like many others I am a remainer and passionate European. I cannot understand why people think we will be in any way better off following Brexit. I do see though that we need a compromise whereby we leave on good terms rather than exiting on a “no deal” basis, which means we still are left having to find a compromise.
I attended a All Party Parliamentary Group on ADR a few years ago, but nothing seems to have come of it! (See photo above).
We did negotiate a “deal” with the EU which protected Northern Ireland from reverting to a conflict situation nd mitigated some of the consequences of Brexit for the economy but on both sides, MPs were not prepared to vote for it.
It does not seem that the extreme sides of the argument are prepared to compromise at the moment.
It seems that there is a real need for mediation on the micro and macro level in society. It can also assist in any other situation where there are extreme opposite viewpoints.
Many people (not just lawyers) are increasingly seeing the benefits of training as a mediator and at ProMediate our next course will be in April 2020. In the meantime anyone wanting to observe a mediation, please get in touch.