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Removed from news page: 8 August 2006: Conversation from the Core Annual Dinner In conversation with John Sturrock, Bill Marsh outlined his work with governments in Eastern Europe and his advisory role with the UN. He reflected on the remarkable changes in the past 15 years and anticipated that, over the next 15 years, the pace of change would continue, transforming the field of dispute resolution. He suggested that Scotland was well placed to benefit from the experiences elsewhere and to take a lead in new thinking. Miryana Nesic, who has advised organisations globally on ADR, explored the changes which have taken place in Australia, where courts have for many years required that mediation be used and where legislation and government initiatives on dispute resolution are often well ahead even of the United States. Recent Examples of Mediations in Scotland Recent examples include partnership level differences in law firms, senior management differences in the hotel industry, complaints about customer service in the financial services sector, joint venture partnering in the construction industry, environmental pollution, property development and boundary issues, biotechnology and research contracts, landlord and tenant differences, post-divorce property matters, issues about victimisation, harassment and racial discrimination in employment, intellectual property rights in a bespoke computerised system, objections to a planning application for a major development, serious personal injury, and commission payments on commercial transactions. Legal Profession Complaints Process 2 Core recently made a submission to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice 2 Committee, which is examining the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill. Click here to read Core’s submission in full. Removed from news page: 30 May 2006: The 2005 Core Dinner: A Conversation with Tom Stipanowich
Heather Allen, Miryana Nesic, John Sturrock and Mary Skelton Roberts, a mediator and conflict resolution strategist from Boston, USA, are leading a session on “Coaching in Managing Conflict” at the annual ABA conference on Dispute Resolution in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference, entitled "ADR on my Mind", takes place on April 5-8 - please see www.abanet.org/dispute for further details. Legal Profession Complaints Process 1 Core responds to the Scottish Executive consultation on the reform of complaints handling in the legal profession. Click here to read the response which was featured in the Scotsman newspaper on Tuesday 9 August 2005. Removed from news page: 19 May 2006:
Core celebrates its fifth birthday and completes its 100th Mediation! It is five years since Core’s very first event, “Communicate to Persuade”, held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 2001. Later this year, in the summer, we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Core’s first mediation. Growth The demand for Core’s mediation services increased by approximately 150% in the past year, bringing as many mediations as in all previous years put together, in locations throughout Scotland, in London and elsewhere in England. In December, we mediated a contractual dispute between a large manufacturer of a global product and one of its distributors. The mediation took place in Geneva and achieved resolution of all issues. The total number of mediation days undertaken by Core’s mediators last year amounted to over 65. Core recently passed the century mark in completed mediations, more than half of these coming since the beginning of 2005. Recently, 5 of our panel mediators were engaged in mediations in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Perth and Edinburgh in the space of 7 working days. Most of the leading law firms now use mediation in appropriate cases; major users also include insurers and leading banks. An increasing number of board room and management issues are being mediated in order to prevent escalation. Removed from news page: 8 February 2006: • Mediating in the Health Service Core recently hosted a very successful breakfast briefing on mediation in the health sector. Discussion was led by Andrew Pollock, a solicitor specialising in medical negligence claims, Dr Neil Houston, a senior GP, and Dr David Morton, formerly Medical Director in an NHS Trust. Others attending included representatives of the Scottish Executive Health Department, senior solicitors and advocates and others with an interest and involvement in this important area. Click here to read a summary of some of the topics discussed. • European Commission Proposes Directive on Mediation The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters. Click here to read the directive and here to read John Sturrock’s comments. • SLAB Revises its Guidelines on Mediation The Scottish Legal Aid Board maintain their support for mediation in non-family civil matters. The Board has revised its guidelines to cover solicitor participation in mediation. Click here for the up to date guidelines. Removed from news page: 29 April 2005: • Scottish Consumer Council The SCC is conducting an extensive inquiry into the civil justice system. Recently, interested parties were addressed by Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow from the USA, a leading expert in dispute resolution. In a stimulating talk, she explored changes in attitudes to justice, courts and the processes by which people address disputes. She referred to research which indicates the importance for many parties of being involved in negotiations, of having a voice, of expressing emotions and of future relationships, matters which courts and conventional negotiations may not be able to address. In the US, ADR, she said, refers not to “alternative dispute resolution” but to “appropriate dispute resolution”. • New Scottish Executive Branch The Scottish Executive has established a Dispute Resolution and Tribunals Policy Branch of the Civil Justice Division of the Justice Department under the leadership of Lesley Napier and Bill Galbraith. The updated Executive booklet "Resolving Disputes without going to Court" has recently been published. To view the online version click here. • NHS Mediation Pilot Scheme The Executive is currently consulting on its proposed pilot scheme in medical negligence cases involving the NHS in Scotland.
Prior to the announcement by the Scottish Executive of a pilot scheme mediation service to deal with medical negligence cases, John Sturrock commented on the use of mediation in the health sector in two recent articles.
Click here to read his article on the value of mediation in resolving conflict within the NHS in Holyrood Magazine's Health Supplement, December 2004
John Sturrock outlines ten essential steps to using negotiation to find creative solutions to disputes at any level Following Core's well attended conference in November 2004, we have drawn together a number of action points on the theme of “Expanding Mediation in Business, Organisations and the Professions.” To view these action points for mediation generally and for specific sectors please click here. Core Mediations pass 50 mark “So things are now beginning to move. Mediation has been proved to work as an effective tool to resolve disputes” (Mair Combes Davies “Talking about a revolution” Legal Week January 2005) Over the past two years Core Mediation has conducted nearly 50 mediations in the commercial, professional services fields and public sector. Added to those in the first two years as the business was being established, the total is now nearly 60. The majority have taken place in the past year. This underscores the steady growth in the use of this process to assist people and businesses to find speedy and practical solutions to differences. It also signifies the growing experience and expertise of Core as Scotland’s premier mediation service. The range of topics is as wide as the range of activity in business and organisations. Employment, senior management issues, commercial contracts, professional negligence claims and building and construction matters remain prominent. There is increasing interest in the personal injury field and we expect to see a number of these in coming months. Users come from the public and private sectors, from small enterprises to large PLCs. Nearly all of our mediations produce a satisfactory outcome. Each request for assistance is treated individually; the number and nature of meetings and other communications are determined by the needs of the matter under discussion. These have included substantial preparation sessions with solicitors, resulting in much more productive use of the time spent with clients at a later stage. On other occasions, private meetings are held with parties on a separate day in advance of the main meetings, to allow all concerned to identify and focus on the key issues. Parties and solicitors often come to Core before any court case is commenced. Mediation is also used when litigation is underway, right up to the period prior to a court proof or other hearing. Solicitors from across Scotland and elsewhere are using our service. Some have become frequent users, from the majority of the large law firms to smaller practices for whom mediation provides a valuable additional service for clients. In some matters, it has been important for expert advisers to be involved. In others, counsel are present and in some, just the parties themselves, especially in management matters. • Click here to view examples of mediation in which Core Mediation has been involved. • Click here to view the spread of usage by legal firms and here to view the breakdown of subject matter • Click here for more comments from users. Core Initiatives
The Panel Core Mediation has launched its enhanced panel of mediators, coaches and facilitators. Please click here to view. • Special Schemes Core has also launched four new initiatives for particular sectors: • Core’s Construction Industry Panel of Mediators and Facilitators • The Professional Practice Dispute Resolution Team • Core’s Personal Injury and Smaller Claims Schemes • Organisations and Workplace Initiative: Design, Coach and Implement Click here to read more. Corporate and Law Firm Policy Statements Core launched a new initiative to encourage businesses, organisations and law firms to commit to using negotiation, mediation and other collaborative approaches to resolve disputes wherever appropriate. The Corporate and Law Firm Policy Statements are easy to understand and to implement and offer a real opportunity for leadership and encouragement of non-adversarial ways to deal with differences. Click here to view and download the Corporate Policy Statement and here for the Law Firm version. Removed from news page: 25 March 2005: Survey Results At the conference, we announced the results of a pre-conference survey to which over 50% of those attending had responded. The results are of considerable interest: very large majorities supported increased use of mediation, greater commitment by business, organisations and lawyers, and power to the courts to award expenses. Please click here to view the full results. Removed from news page: 8 February 2005: Core Conference a Resounding Success
• “Many thanks for a great day yesterday. It certainly went well beyond my expectations…” • “Well done on putting together such an interesting cast of speakers. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and have gone away full of energy!” • I thought it was a great success. You brought together such a variety of people which was really interesting...” • “If yesterday's Conference does not engender enthusiasm for the concept of Mediation then nothing will! I thought that yesterday could not have gone any better...” These unsolicited comments indicate that our Conference on Monday 15 November was a success! 124 people gathered at the Royal Society in Edinburgh to participate in the conference “Expanding Mediation in Business, Organisations and the Professions”. They were entertained by three outstanding presentations by guest speakers, Michael Leathes, Miryana Nesic and Judge Alistair Macduff. Each speaker, in different ways, captured the audience’s imagination with provocative and thoughtful contributions.
The speakers challenged us to push out the boundaries of what is conventionally thought of as “mediation”, as we looked at “deal mediation”, business benefits and the design of dispute systems in organisations, as well as mediation where litigation is underway or in prospect. The conference chairman, Sir David Edward, in his closing summary, contrasted mediation with other new initiatives which had come and gone over the years, and expressed the view that “mediation is not a fad”. Over 50 participants attended a demonstration of mediation in action at the start of the day. The remarkable cross-section of people from the professions, public sector, government, commerce and industry ensured that a wide-range of views were offered in the 5 workshop groups. Topics included: • health: the Scottish Executive’s proposal for a pilot mediation scheme for medical negligence cases; a pre-action protocol to assist management of cases; the role of the Public Services Ombudsman • insurance: funding; awareness amongst trades unions and insurers and their representative organisations; Legal Aid issues and the revised guidelines; Core’s proposed new Personal Injury scheme; a pre-action protocol; the need for a judicial champion; changes to rules of court • construction: the need for industry champions; recognition of best value and partnering; the role of institutions; the value of a rule of court to give confidence; mediation clauses in contracts • workplace: the need for education that the soft issues are often hardest to address; mediator standards and independence; the role of internal and external mediators; strategic, collective and individual initiatives; questions of access and funding • commercial: the role of courts in encouraging mediation; the value of professional rules for solicitors and counsel; the role of education and the need for top-down leadership
We intend to produce a summary of the ideas and proposals which were fed back into the conference from the groups and to circulate this in due course. The Sunday Herald, the Evening News and the Herald on the day of the conference all carried news items. Removed from news page: 3 February 2005: Further Rise in Mediation Numbers The number of mediations continues to grow. Recent mediations include management issues in a major public sector service provider, software provision in a commercial contract, senior level employment disputes, alleged breach of a distribution and licensing agreement and alleged breach of contract by an architect in the provision of professional services in a building contract.
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