Blog Posts: September 2009

According to People Management an in-house mediation service at East Lancashire NHS Teaching Primary Care Trust has reduced formal dispute cases by 60 per cent in its first year, PM has learnt. The trust trained 15 members of staff, including front-line workers, managers and union stewards, as mediators and appointed a dispute resolution lead to work alongside HR to coordinate the service. I do some mediation training of the same sort .  Provided it is managed carefully organisat....

Some interesting news has emerged within the last week in the Law Society Gazette and the Times. Divorcing and separating couples would be compelled to consider mediation before going to court, under plans being drawn up by ministers. At present only couples funded by legal aid must consider mediation as a method of sorting out arrangements over children and finances. An interesting objectio from Baroness Deech, the Gresham Professor of Law who this week launches a series of lectures calli....

The problems of "Bloodgate" at Harlequins Rugby Club illustrate the complelling need to settle cases. The problem facing all parties is that once a mediated settlement has not been reached your dirty laundering can be aired in public.  According to correspondence seen by Telegraph Sport, the player, Tom Williams made the request in a “final offer” sent to the club at 10.55am on Aug 7, the day of his deadline for appealing against the ban repr....

It is always important to stay up to date on the law and a good event worth attending is on Monday, 7th September 2009 and run by CPD for Webinars. The beauty of webinars is that you can stay in the office(or home)  and do not have to get out and about, you can ask the speaker questions and get to see the event again and again.  As one testimonial says  "After a hard day at the office, the last thing I want to do is travel to a barristers' chambers....

According to Philip Bartle QC in the Times, the actions of the police there should lead to important changes in policing future demonstrations. Although some demonstrators were violent, most were peaceful. Ian Tomlinson, who had nothing to do with the demonstration, died and there has been grave concern at the police treatment of many demonstrators. Last month Parliament’s Human Rights Committee recommended that in future independent negotiators should facilitate dialogue between police a....

This is just to let you know that I will be speaking on behalf of MBL Seminars and have a series of dates coming up. The era of mediation has arrived and lawyers need to have an understanding of these issues. Main points covered: The different forms of ADR - Conciliation, Arbitration, Mediation How mediation fits into the ADR arena and why it’s different from conciliation and arbitration What are the trends underpinning the growth of mediation What happens at a mediation....