Mediation: a practical guide

The legal establishment now feels that mediation is an established part of the dispute resolution system, but that education and training in its use is not sufficiently developed to mean that all those involved find it easy to set up, prepare and conduct themselves at mediation. Lord Woolf, in his reforms of the Civil Justice System, placed ADR on the map, and over the last ten years a series of legal decisions have endorsed its importance, to the extent that it is now a regular, if not very common, dispute resolution process. Large numbers of professionals still do not find it easy to take part. For example, there is a lot of uncertainty as to which mediator to use. This report is aimed at all those who should be using mediation or could be using it to better effect.