“It's easy to find an excuse not to mediate. It's far harder to volunteer to go into an alien environment and try a new approach. But the benefits are there for those that are willing.”

Personal Injury Scheme Launched

Core Mediation launched its Personal Injury Mediation Scheme at a Breakfast Seminar in March. The Scheme provides a cost effective, time efficient and streamlined system to deal with damages claims up to £50,000. The service will use mediators with experience of personal injury.

Pamela Lyall, who heads up the scheme, commented:

“Increasingly, insurers and personal injury lawyers want to use mediation to benefit from the real savings it can bring in time and costs. The scheme provides an opportunity to resolve claims at the earliest possible date, at a low cost and enabling people with claims to put the matter behind them without the anxieties and uncertainties of going to court.”

Details of the scheme are available by clicking here. Contact Pamela Lyall to discuss.

Seminar Bullet Points:

· Mediation awareness is increasing and there is a growing number of enquiries concerning personal injury work.

· As most personal injury cases are capable of negotiation, they are also suitable for mediation. Mediation is not a panacea and the majority of personal injury cases (97%) settle in any event. Mediation can however achieve an earlier and more effective settlement.

· Cases involving disputes on liability, causation and quantum may be most suitable as these are often difficult to resolve in face to face negotiations.

· Mediation offers an opportunity to be more creative and enables settlement to be achieved on a principled basis, rather than a 50:50 or other compromise.

· Mediation can be attractive to insurers in offering a cost effective solution.

· The best time to mediate will vary depending on the type and value of the case.

· A seriously injured pursuer may benefit from staged mediation to help manage the case.

· Employer liability cases, often involving issues about returning to work and retraining, may be especially appropriate for mediation.

· Disputes among defenders (eg about allocation of liability or damages) may be usefully mediated, enabling co-ordination of approach.

A comment following a recent successful Core mediation in a personal injury case:

“The case that we mediated had been outstanding for 7 years ... At the outset the parties were about £250,000 apart. This was not a straight forward case. Traditional methods of negotiation had failed. The next stop was the court room. We agreed to try something different - mediation. It worked! But why?

The parties attended because they wanted to find a solution and settle. We were focused.
We were prepared and that involved recognising the value (at either end of the scale), the risks, the costs of not settling. Of course that is all common sense and should be standard practice but sometimes it takes something to prompt us to do it.
The decision makers were all there and were involved not just spectating.
The mediator acted as a voice of reason and when needed poured oil on waters - and sometimes that was needed. The value of this independent voice of reason can not and should not be under estimated.

All parties were happy with the terms agreed and parted on good terms - no acrimony, no bad feeling, no loser. It's the first time as an Insurer that I have been able to personally wish the claimant well following settlement and that type of personal interaction can only reflect well on our business. The result was a genuine feel good factor for me personally and, I believe, for all involved.”

(Tony Newman, Claims Controller, Allianz Cornhill)

Next Mediation Training Course

Core Coaching’s highly rated Mediation Skills Training and Mediator Assessment Course will next take place in two modules: from 6 to 9 September 2005 and from 12 to 14 October 2005.

The first module is a full course in itself for those who wish to understand how to manage differences and disputes in a variety of settings, from the workplace to litigation to commerce, with special emphasis on the role of the mediator.

The second, optional, assessment module leads to the Core Certificate of Competence in basic mediation skills.

In our most recent course, we welcomed participants from the worlds of patents, business, banking and human resources, together with members of the Scottish and English bars and a number of senior solicitors from north and south of the border. Their comments so far have been encouraging:

“Thank you for an amazing Mediation Course, I found it to be a life changing and informing experience. The course design, content and style of delivery was first class. I think your Core Team are very impressive, in their kind and professional manner.”

“I have little snap shot moments of different challenges and experiences from which I have learnt a great deal and will remember for a long time to come”.

The course will once again be led by our team of outstanding coaches from throughout the UK.

Please click here to read the Course Prospectus and here for an online registration form. For further information, contact Lynne Davies.

Core Mediation Updates

· Panel Update and Continuing Growth

All of our panel of mediators have been involved in mediations in recent months. In addition to John Sturrock and Pamela Lyall, Heather Allen, Hugh Donald, Sir David Edward, Alastair Kelly, Carol Paton and Alastair Thornton have been engaged in a variety of matters including director and company disputes, organisational structures, property transfers, professional services, employment contracts, payment of contractual fees, damages and compensation claims and motorway construction.

By mid May, the number of mediations conducted in 2005 by Core will equal the total for the whole of 2004, a clear indication of the rapid expansion both of mediation in Scotland and of Core as the longest-standing commercial mediation business in Scotland.

We are delighted that we now have available to mediate in appropriate cases the experienced solicitor, Lesley Gray, medical professionals Dr Robert Hendry and Dr Neil Houston, transport and construction professional, Duncan Fraser, and senior accountant, Judith Scott.

We are especially pleased to announce that the internationally recognised mediation practitioner, Miryana Nesic, is joining the Core team as a consultant.

Our panel engage in regular CPD. The latest event is a Master Class with leading mediator and CEO of the New York-based CPR Institute for Conflict Prevention and Dispute Resolution, Tom Stipanowich. Tom’s involvement with Core is a real honour for us.

· Without commitment mediation consultation

If parties or solicitors wish to explore mediation as an option, Core Mediation offers a without commitment initial meeting to discuss the suitability of mediation. This offers a risk-free opportunity for those with questions to explore the options at no cost. Most who do so find that the added value of the process makes it a constructive and effective way to deal with differences and disputes. Contact John Sturrock or Pamela Lyall to discuss.

· Draft Mediation Clause

We are often asked for suggestions for an appropriate clause for contracts where parties wish to make reference to mediation as a dispute resolution process.

Click here for our suggested wording.

Recent SLAB guidance

"Refusal by a legally aided party to enter into Mediation will be a relevant consideration for the Board both at the stage of deciding whether or not it is reasonable to grant the party legal aid and in deciding, once granted, if it is reasonable for legal aid to continue in place. Objections can be sent in by the opponent in this respect either prior to the application being determined or any time during the existence of the proceedings/legal aid certificate.

Regulation 30(a) of The Civil Legal Aid ( Scotland) Regulations should be noted in this respect - this states that the Board can cease to make legal aid available to an assisted person if it is no longer satisfied that it is reasonable in the particular circumstances of the case that that person should continue to receive legal aid.

The Board however would not terminate legal aid on this basis without asking the assisted party why they did not take up an offer to Mediate.

If the assisted party can provide a reasoned explanation as to why they have refused to take up an offer of Mediation then Legal Aid would not be terminated. All will therefore depend on the individual facts and circumstances of each individual case."

For more information please contact Liz Cuschieri or Catriona Whyte at the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Current Developments

· NHS Scotland CLO Mediation Pilot Project

In conjunction with the Scottish Executive, the NHS in Scotland Central Legal Office has launched a 3 year project to assess the use of mediation as a mechanism for resolving clinical negligence disputes. Where experience and research shows that people in such cases often need an explanation, reassurance, and acknowledgement of pain and anger, in addition to (or even instead of) compensation, the availability of a private process in which these can be addressed quickly is welcome. This also offers medical professionals a means to have difficult issues dealt with expeditiously and non-confrontationally.

To read John Sturrock’s article on the value of mediation in resolving conflict within the NHS (Holyrood Magazine's Health Supplement, December 2004) click here and on using negotiation to find creative solutions to disputes (Legal and Medical, December 2004), click here.

· English Court of Appeal Decision

Burchell v Bullard [2005] EWCA Civ 358

Refusing to mediate on grounds that the matter is too complex for mediation is "plain nonsense", according to Lord Justice Ward. A small building dispute is par excellence the kind of dispute which lends itself to ADR. The defendants could not rely on their own obstinacy to assert that mediation had no reasonable prospect of success. Last year’s case of Halsey was referred to:

“Halsey has made plain not only the high rate of a successful outcome being achieved by mediation but also its established importance as a track to a just result running parallel with that of the court system. Both have a proper part to play in the administration of justice. The court has given its stamp of approval to mediation and it is now the legal profession which must become fully aware of and acknowledge its value. The profession can no longer with impunity shrug aside reasonable requests to mediate.”

“The court is entitled to take an unreasonable refusal into account, even when it occurs before the start of formal proceedings.”

To read the whole judgment, please click here.

Core in the Press

· John Sturrock says that the mediator's job is to bridge the communications gap. And Mediation actually has a remarkably successful record.

Click here to read the article "Finding effective solutions to disputes", Business & Finance Magazine, March 2005.

· John Sturrock explains, in an interview with The Firm Magazine, that even though Scotland has been slower to accept mediation than England, the momentum is gathering and acceptance of its benefits has never been greater.

Click here to read the full interview “Its Good to Talk”, The Firm Magazine, March 2005.

· Pamela Lyall introduces and explains Core Mediation’s new Personal Injury Scheme in this April’s Firm Magazine.

Click here to read the article “Personal Injury Claims to be Fast-tracked by New Service”, The Firm Magazine, April 2005.

Core People

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Steve McCann as Business Support Administrator. In June, Steve will replace Daniel Gunn who has provided Core with outstanding service over the past year. Daniel moves on to a legal traineeship and we wish him well.

Also joining the Core team is Jennie Hamilton who has been working with us on a consultancy basis since the end of last year. Jennie is the publisher of The-Grapevine, the ezine of her well respected Virtual Business Network. Jennie’s new role as Business Development Consultant will give us the necessary experience as we develop the Core Portfolio.

Core Fun

For some fun and an interactive mediation experience in which to try out your mediation expertise, click here.

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Our opportunity is to transform the culture of conflict from coercion and confrontation to consensus and cooperation