As the spotlight shines on mediated settlements with the signing of the Singapore Convention on Mediation on 7 August 2019, it is timely to recall that settlement agreements, like any other contract, are only as useful as they are enforceable. While parties may often feel that they have completed the hard work in reaching a … Read more
The Singapore Convention, more formally known as the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, was signed today in Singapore by 46 countries – a record number of first-day signatories for a UN trade convention. While not including the UK or any EU countries, the signatories do include the world’s two largest … Read more
The Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution has announced the release of revised Swiss Rules of Mediation, which entered into force on 1 July 2019. The revised Rules replace the first harmonised Swiss Rules of Mediation, adopted in 2007. The stated aim of the revisions is to further encourage their use by clarifying, shortening and simplifying their … Read more
The High Court has held that correspondence marked “without prejudice save as to costs” and which described the conduct of prior “without prejudice” (WP) negotiations (including a mediation and subsequent discussions) was admissible in an application for costs against the claimant’s lawyers: Willers v Joyce & Ors [2019] EWHC 937 (Ch). The court accepted that … Read more
A trend toward combining alternative dispute resolution processes (typically mediation and arbitration) is gaining traction internationally and is being particularly driven in Asia by the Belt and Road Initiative. With China at the heart of the Belt and Road, a more consensus-driven approach to dispute resolution, reflecting Asian values and promoting mediation, looks set to … Read more
Jan O’Neill Professional Support Lawyer, London The UK Government has published legislation to effectively revoke the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive (2008/52/EC) after Brexit. The Cross-Border Mediation (EU Directive) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) were made on 1 March 2019 and will come into effect on exit day, whenever that occurs. Why? The development … Read more
Peter Frost, Partner in our London office, has published a post on our Employment Notes blog reviewing the current and potential use of ADR in employment disputes. The post, which was first published in the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) Briefing March 2019, can be accessed here. As we have previously reported, Peter has co-chaired various reports on … Read more
A recent Court of Appeal decision has given rise to concern regarding the extent to which litigation privilege is available to protect an organisation’s internal deliberations on its settlement options in a dispute. In WH Holding Ltd v E20 Stadium LLP [2018] EWCA Civ 2652 (outlined here) the Court found that litigation privilege applies only to documents … Read more
