The last year has seen a notable increase in focus on the role of ADR in the English civil justice system, from both the judiciary and government. Amongst the various moving parts in what is becoming a crowded landscape of developments are: the Master of the Rolls’ vision for out-of-court resolution options to be fully … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills has become a founding signatory of the Greener Litigation Pledge, an important industry-led initiative to reduce the environmental impact of dispute resolution processes. All organisations involved in dispute resolution in England and Wales are invited to sign the Pledge. Signatories agree to take active steps to work toward minimising the carbon footprint … 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

Jan O’Neill Professional Support Lawyer, London   The Civil Justice Council’s ADR working group has released its final report on ADR and Civil Justice, following consultation on its interim report released last year. The broad mandate of the review was “to maintain the search for the right relationship between civil justice and ADR” and to … Read more

A new (second) edition of the Jackson ADR Handbook was published on 8 September 2016. The original edition of the Handbook (see our bulletin here) was published in 2013 as one of the suite of measures recommended by Lord Justice Jackson in his 2010 Review of Civil Litigation Costs.  That Review endorsed a "serious campaign" to ensure that lawyers, … Read more

The recently published final report of Lord Justice Briggs in his Civil Courts Structure Review includes some interesting conclusions as to the role currently played by ADR in the civil justice system in England and Wales and a number of recommendations aimed at expanding that role. Key recommendations are for: the proposed new Online Court to include an expanded range of … Read more

An important judicial report has been published examining the need for changes to the court structure and processes for civil justice in England and Wales. The Civil Courts Structure Review by Lord Justice Briggs was commissioned by the senior judiciary to coincide with the UK government's ongoing wider programme for reform of the justice system more generally.  Briggs … Read more

It has been confirmed that online businesses will have an extended timeframe in which to comply with new obligations to signpost customers to the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Platform being set up by the EU Commission. As we have previously reported, the EU ODR Regulation which came into force last year (and was implemented in the UK as … Read more