Recently Emma Harte of Resolution wrote to the Law Society Gazette commenrting on the success of family cout based mediation.
She observed.
"The story ‘Family mediation pilot achieves mixed results’ (news, 7 January) suggested that court-based mediation in the pilot scheme had disappointing results.
Given the context in which these mediations occurred, the opposite is true, and the pilot actually looks like a remarkable success story.
The pilot involved cases that were so difficult they had already reached court and an overall mediation success rate of 79% (28% settled, 24% narrowed dispute, 27% further mediation) is extremely good.
While court may not be the best environment for mediation, these results demonstrate that court-based referrals can and do work.
It is good to see that mediation saved the legal aid fund £10m last year. Mediation also delivers less delay, less damage to family relationships, more empowered outcomes, and therefore even greater savings for the human cost of family separation."
It is good to see a lawyer standing up for her belief in mediation and clearly she has made some good points..
Nevertheless is it not difficult to quantify the success rate of mediation?
I see many mediation providers asserting how successful their firm is in resolving disputes.
But is resolution a panacea?
Consider this "successful" negotiation of many years past.
At about 1:30am on 30 September 1938 Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement.
The agreement was officially introduced by Mussolini although in fact the so-called Italian plan had been prepared in the German Foreign Office.
It was nearly identical to the Godesberg proposal: the German army was to complete the occupation of the Sudetenland by 10 October, and an international commission would decide the future of other disputed areas.
Well, we all know what happened next.
Now if any mediator or mediation provider had successfully negotiated the above matter, you can bet your bottom dollar they would be singing their successes from a rooftop.
But it would not have been right, would it?
Why?
Justin Patten, Mediator