If you wish to offer mediation to the other party to try to resolve matters, we suggest the wording below out here. They are under an obligation to consider using alternative dispute resolution although it is voluntary.
We are an independent mediation service provider, mediating between consumers and businesses throughout the UK
The other party needs to agree to take part. If they fail to do so you can draw this to the attention of the Court as demonstrating poor conduct. The solicitors might then be unable to recover their legal costs at the end of the process.
Unfortunately until the other party agrees to mediate we can’t help at this stage.
Please see below the wording of a draft letter that you could send to your opponent offering to mediate.
You can tell them that the Courts encourage parties to mediate before proceedings are issued and that you reserve the right to draw any refusal to the attention of the Court upon the issue of costs.
If you are a trader you must in any event provide details of a certified ADR provider to customers when issuing a “deadlock” final response to complaint letter or you are in breach of the ADR Regulations.
Unfortunately we do need to have the other party’s agreement before we can assist. You need to have received their final response and agreement to mediate.
If the other party refuses to mediate you can draw this to the Court’s attention when it comes to decide the issue of who should pay the legal Costs.
Peter Causton