In July of this year the Ministry of Justice published a white paper regarding the role of Mediation in the Small Claims Court. Here we share the latest news regarding the increasing use of mediation in the Civil Justice System

Learn more here.

The paper talks about introducing compulsory mediation for claims under £500 with the courts offering a free of charge one hour mediation with the Small Claims Mediation Service (SCMS) with a view to later rolling out to bigger claims which would require the services of external mediators.

The document was sent to a number of dispute resolution service providers inviting  comments from interested parties including the Civil Mediation Council (CMC).

The CMC invited members to feed their comments back to the CMC so that they could draft a response on behalf of the membership.

The CMC pointed out in their response that in many cases,  one hours mediation would be insufficient time  to reach   a satisfactory settlement and Parties should have the option of spending more time in mediation if required.

Rossendale Mediation supports the use of mediation in the Civil Justice System – using mandatory mediation as a prelude to taking disputes into the courtroom on the basis that this will bring a quicker, cost effective and altogether less stressful dispute resolution process into the public eye,  offering those in dispute the choice of a facilitated negotiation where they can reach an agreement on terms they feel acceptable.  If no settlement is reached they have not compromised their case going to court but have been given the opportunity to reach a negotiated settlement.