• CIVIL LITIGATION NEWS – NEW SCHEME TO INCREASE TAKE UP OF MEDIATION

    The Central London Civil Justice Centre will on Thursday 1 April 2004 introduce a new scheme, which will involve automatically referring selected civil cases to mediation.  Parties in Court cases in the Central London County Court could be liable for costs if they refuse to mediate when their case has been selected for mediation and their reasons to opt out of the scheme do not satisfy a Judge. 

    The automatic referral scheme builds on the existing voluntary mediation scheme, which has been running at Central London County Court since 1996.  The schemes are available for civil case concerning disputes of a value above the small claims limit and where cases do not concern a child or mental patient or a party who is exempt from payment of Court fees.  Cases in which a Court has granted an interim injunction will also be exempt from the scheme. 

    It is estimated that approximately one third of cases eligible to be directed to mediation automatically will be processed by the scheme as the Court aims to allocate 20 cases a week to the automatic mediation scheme starting from 1 April 2004. 

    If one or both of the parties to the Court action object to mediation they will need to give their reasons to the Court.  The case will then be referred to a District Judge (most likely District Judge Margaret Langley) who will decide whether mediation should take place or whether the case should proceed without any attempted mediation.   If the District Judge directs that mediation should take place but one of the parties still declines to mediate, then that party is at risk of being liable to costs irrespective of the outcome of the claim at trial. 

    If mediation is successful, a Consent Order will be ratified by the Court, reflecting the agreement reached on the mediation. 

    If mediation is unsuccessful, or only partially successful, the parties will be free to continue to trial.  At that point in time, the Court will allocate the case to the appropriate track for the case to progress or order the parties to complete an Allocation Questionnaire. 

    The automatic referral scheme is being piloted by the Central London County Court and will be reviewed after 12 months.  Civil Justice Minister David Lammy, commenting on the scheme said;

    “Going to Court should be the last resort. This new pilot will help test the effectiveness of mediation when referral to it is an automatic part of the Court process.  This will help us develop alternative and better ways to resolve disputes”.

    Watch this space.