Professional Negligence

Professional Indemnity insurers were amongst the pioneers of mediation in the 1990’s.  The Solicitors Indemnity Fund and ITT London & Edinburgh Insurance were at the forefront of the move to persuade claimants to use the mediation process to settle their claims at a time when few claimant solicitors, let alone their clients, had heard of mediation.  They used mediators to educate those for whom it was a novelty and to dispel the fears that were the consequence of ignorance.  Encouraged by these insurers, Head of Chambers, Mark Jackson-Stops, was involved in a programme of educating both claimant and defendant firms of solicitors to recognise the benefits for their clients and to identify cases suitable for the process and the appropriate time for the mediation to take place.

Professional Negligence lawyers were amongst the first to recognise that a pre-action protocol would allow a platform for settlement negotiations without the need for Proceedings to be issued.  Pre-Action Protocols are now embedded in the Civil Procedure Rules and many mediations take place and cases are settled at the protocol stage with consequent savings in costs.

In Place of Strife mediators have been in the vanguard of Professional Negligence mediations and almost all our members will have handled this type of work.  When recommending mediators, our case managers will bear in mind the underlying subject of the negligence; for example, a solicitor’s negligence may well essentially be a matter of property valuation where the measure of damages is diminution in value or, in a corporate transaction, the measure of loss might be share valuation.

For advice on the In Place of Strife mediators with the right experience for your case, please contact our senior case manager, Joanne Claypole.