In Place of Strife is a Chambers for highly experienced and distinguished commercial mediators with a track record of over 80% of cases settling at or soon after mediation.

Mediation is now recognised as one of the fastest and most cost-effective routes to achieving settlement of  a dispute.  Going to trial is expensive and stressful, often taking months or years of costly litigation, with no guarantee of an outcome that satisfies the parties when you get there.

Mediation, (sometimes referred to as ADR, or Alternative Dispute Resolution), is used where opposing parties want to find a solution yet for some reason cannot reach a settlement.   Most people involved in a dispute would rather reach a settlement than go to trial.

We bring together opposing parties and their advisers and replace adversarial confrontation with principled negotiation.  Our object is to find a workable agreement between the parties and avoid recourse to the Courts.  The benefits of reaching agreement through mediation are often very significant, both financially and personally.

Key to our success is the proven experience of all our Chambers members.  This allows us to offer an unparallelled independent professional service.

Mediation is entirely private and can help to avoid unwelcome publicity.  A settlement reached through mediation does not set a precedent for similar disputes in the future.

Many cases are now being encouraged into mediation by the Courts. With an exceptional mediator involved, going to Court really should be the last resort.

 

The parties and their advisers meet at an agreed location for the first mediation session, which often lasts only a day.

The mediator will first establish that the representatives of the parties have authority to settle if terms can be reached.

After the initial briefing, a short statement is often made by each party of the principal issues, normally in full session. Then the mediator holds private meetings with the parties in separate private sessions.

This privacy enables the mediator to identify and understand the respective interests to be satisfied for a successful resolution.

The mediator is a highly skilled communicator and works in an informal environment, exploring the dispute impartially, taking into account the parties' objectives, and suggesting ways in which the gaps can be bridged.

A mediator does not dictate settlement terms and cannot disclose to either party “unauthorised” information. They can however explore the true feelings of the parties involved and identify common ground.

We appreciate that these situations can be challenging, and that some parties may arrive at the process with an axe to grind. A skilled mediator will provide conditions where anger and antagonism are effectively disarmed, and will clear a path for constructive negotiation.

If a resolution is reached, and it usually is, the mediator works with the parties to produce a binding legal agreement. If not, and those occasions are rare, the mediator will identify points of difference and agreement as a basis for any further negotiation or action.

The process usually takes one or two days with parties generally assisted by their lawyers, sometimes with experts in attendance.  The mediation remains a voluntary process in which the parties remain in control.