With not much fanfare the pilot of Judicial Mediation rolls out from London, Birmingham and Newcastle Tribunals and onto the whole Tribunal circuit.
Welcome as this may be this is hardly going to lead to a widescale use of mediation in employment disputes. Indeed judicial mediation could be counter-productive.
Some reasons why judicial mediation will not really change much in the employment scheme are:
1 The fact that mediations will be geared towards discrimination cases where the claimant is still employed by the organisation. These type of cases are generally suitable for mediation but what about others? Are they not suitable?
2 The fact that mediations will be done by Tribunal Chairpersons. Welcome this may be in certain cases where the Claimant wants to have his or her day in Court as such, parties may be fearful about opening up to the mediator as they may fear that mediator will discuss it with the Tribunal Chairperson who is hearing the case.
3 The fact that employment lawyers have so little experience of mediation. Last week I did a mediation training course with a wide level of experience of employment lawyers and only 2 had done some mediations and that was 2 at most each. The lack of experience of mediation is almost astonishing. If you are not familar with mediation, are you really going to push the Tribunal at CMD level to have one.
4 The fact that there is only 1 mediator in each Tribunal office and a part time mediator at that. This will mean that many cases suitable for mediation will pass by. There is only so much a Tribunal Chairperson can do.