*/
Commercial and civil mediation has grown by 30 per cent in the last three years.
The fourth Mediation Audit by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (“CEDR”), reveals that approximately 6,000 mainstream commercial and civil cases mediated in the last year. This figure does not include workplace or small claims mediations. The total case value was £5.1 billion, an increase of £1 billion in the last three years.
Mediation works nine times out of ten, with about threequarters of cases settling on the day, and a further 14 per cent settling shortly afterwards.
Preparation—by clients, mediators and lawyer—were seen as more important factors in reaching settlement than negotiation skills and mediation techniques.
Mediators blamed non-settlement on “intransigent parties, unrealistic expectations and clients on fishing expeditions”.
About 90 individuals dominate the mediation market, being involved in about 85 per cent of commercial cases.
A “concerning finding”, according to the audit, was that while mediators continue to believe that the most important factors in their appointments were experiences and qualifications, lawyers said that experience and the mediator’s fee were the key factors. In 2007 lawyers’ responses to the same questionhad been experience and recommendation by a colleague.
221 mediators participated in the audit.
The fourth Mediation Audit by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (“CEDR”), reveals that approximately 6,000 mainstream commercial and civil cases mediated in the last year. This figure does not include workplace or small claims mediations. The total case value was £5.1 billion, an increase of £1 billion in the last three years.
Mediation works nine times out of ten, with about threequarters of cases settling on the day, and a further 14 per cent settling shortly afterwards.
Preparation—by clients, mediators and lawyer—were seen as more important factors in reaching settlement than negotiation skills and mediation techniques.
Mediators blamed non-settlement on “intransigent parties, unrealistic expectations and clients on fishing expeditions”.
About 90 individuals dominate the mediation market, being involved in about 85 per cent of commercial cases.
A “concerning finding”, according to the audit, was that while mediators continue to believe that the most important factors in their appointments were experiences and qualifications, lawyers said that experience and the mediator’s fee were the key factors. In 2007 lawyers’ responses to the same questionhad been experience and recommendation by a colleague.
221 mediators participated in the audit.
Commercial and civil mediation has grown by 30 per cent in the last three years.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
By Kem Kemal, CEO, Henry Dannell
By BSK Financial Planning
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Kick off your career at the Bar Council’s Pupillage Fair this October – it’s one of the most valuable opportunities for aspiring barristers, says Amelia Clegg
Join us on Saturday 21 November 2026 at Leeds Beckett University and see for yourself why the North continues to be an exceptional place to build a career at the Bar
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control