May 15, 2025
Is Commercial Litigation in Decline? The Rise of ADR Amidst Funding Constraints In recent years, civil litigation trends in England and Wales have diverged sharply between the County Court and the High Court. While the County Court has seen a consistent increase in...
May 14, 2025
Why Suggesting Mediation Is a Strength, Not a Sign of Weakness By Peter Causton In the world of conflict—whether in business, family, or legal disputes—there’s a persistent and misguided belief that proposing mediation is a sign of weakness. To some, it signals...
May 14, 2025
“Hail to the Thief”: Hamlet Reimagined through the Pulse of Radiohead By Peter Causton Last night’s performance of “Hamlet: Hail to the Thief” was a visceral and unflinching reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, fused with the haunting soundscape of Radiohead. It...
May 13, 2025
“Once More Unto the Breach”: The Power of Positivity in Mediation and Negotiation By [Author Name] “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.” These words, immortalised by Shakespeare’s Henry V, are more than a call to battle — they are a call to courage,...
May 13, 2025
The Wild Way: Finding Beauty in Chaos and Letting the Weeds Grow By Peter Causton Somewhere on a quiet footpath or at the edge of a garden, a tangle of weeds rises defiantly from the grass — unruly, uninvited, and entirely themselves. At first glance, they may seem a...
May 13, 2025
“Ripeness Is All”: When Should Commercial Litigators Advise Clients to Mediate? By Peter Causton Everyone knows that the war in Ukraine will one day come to an end. History tells us that even the most entrenched conflicts ultimately find their way to a table — if not...
May 11, 2025
Last week as part of the Frodsham literature festival, I had the privilege of attending a poetry reading by Lemn Sissay, and it was an experience that stayed with me long after the final applause. Sissay, who has carved a place for himself as one of Britain’s most...
May 11, 2025
Following in Family Footsteps: Inheritance, Inspiration or Nepotism? Last night, I had the pleasure of witnessing a truly mesmerising performance by Gerald Dickens — the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens — who delivered a one-man show that breathed new life into...
May 7, 2025
*Mediation in Judicial Review Cases: Lessons from the High Hedges Dispute** The intersection of mediation and judicial review is vividly illustrated in *Re Timothy Gamble and Raffaella Zurlo’s Application*, a Northern Ireland High Court case concerning a dispute...
May 2, 2025
HMRC Explores Expansion of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Tax Cases: A Shift Toward Collaborative Solutions The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is considering a significant overhaul of its approach to resolving tax disputes, with a focus on expanding the use...
