By Chris Makin chartered accountant, accredited civil mediator and accredited expert determiner
You may have seen my article last December, and many similar from other mediators, with the title Have the Floodgates Finally Opened? We rejoiced at the case of Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416 when, at long last, the Court of Appeal overturned Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust [2004] EWCA Civ 576 where Dyson LJ had said: “…to oblige truly unwilling parties to refer their disputes to mediation would be to impose an unacceptable obstruction to their right of access to the court.” He said that this would offend Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which establishes the right to a fair trial.
Well, now there isn’t an obstruction. Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, decided that a judge can now insist that the parties go to mediation before being allowed a hearing. So all those years where judges imposed costs orders, made pointed remarks from the bench and kept parties waiting for many months, are over. Yippee! Parties can be helped by a friendly mediator, promptly and at modest cost, and have their own solution to their dispute. Wonderful!
By arboricultural consultant and accredited expert witness Mark Chester of Cedarwood Tree Care.
Since the last issue of Your Expert Witness, when we were in limbo as to where the coronavirus outbreak was going, the COVID-19 crisis has infiltrated all aspects of life – including in the legal sector. It did not take long for the Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to suspend all but the most urgent of hearings, before devising ways of carrying out more routine hearings.