Mediation in the UK has been increasing year upon year since the 1999 Civil Procedure Rules highlighted the benefits of mediation.
It is a structured process where an independent third party (the mediator) helps disputing parties reach a mutually agreeable resolution. It is commonly used in civil, family, workplace, employment and commercial disputes as an alternative to litigation and the employment tribunal.
Types of Mediation in the UK
- Family Mediation – Often used in divorce or child arrangement disputes. The UK government requires separating couples to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before going to court.
- Workplace Mediation – Helps resolve conflicts between employees or between employees and employers.
- Civil & Commercial Mediation – Used for disputes involving contracts, property, or business matters.
- Community Mediation – Resolves disputes between neighbours specifically over boundaries.
- Peer Mediation – Used in schools to resolve conflicts between students.
- Faith Mediation – Used in faith groups to resolves disputes.
Advantages of Mediation
- Cost-Effective: Generally cheaper than court proceedings.
- Faster Resolution: Cases can be settled in days or weeks rather than months or years.
- Confidential: Unlike court cases, mediation is private.
- Flexible & Voluntary: Both parties control the outcome.
- Less Adversarial: Encourages cooperation rather than conflict.
Legal Aspects
- Mediation agreements can be made legally binding if both parties agree.
- The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) encourage mediation before litigation.
- Courts can penalize parties for refusing mediation without a good reason.
Effective Dispute Solutions Limited like many other mediation services providers operate national mediation services across the whole United Kingdom. With the increase of online mediation, many mediator services have become international.
We have done a survey of the main mediation players in the United Kingdom and compared them on the following basis.
- How long have they been mediating?
- Who are they accredited through?
- How many mediators do they have?
- What do they specialise in, if anything?
- Do they have any reviews?
- Do they offer online mediation, just in person or both?
- Their online presence.
- Use and ease of their websites.
- Pricing structure.
- Any awards.
Mediation Bristol with ten key players in this category, we concluded that this mediation company offered the best service. They have been existence for over ten years, have several high-flying mediators, with tons of reviews and impressive backgrounds.
Birmingham Mediation they have four dedicated mediators who live and work in Birmingham, coming from mainly a legal background, with a combined mediation experience of circa 80 years. They mainly provide commercial, workplace and employment mediations.
CEDR Mediators mainly all solicitors, barristers or ex, retired legal professionals. Mostly running commercial mediation practices. A mixed bag, either full time mediators or part time alongside a legal career. Predominately dealing with high value and complicated disputes. Ranging from professional negligence to multi-jurisdictional construction disputes.
Essex Mediation twenty-five companies to compare and pick from. The competition was stiff; however, this outfit provide a range of mediation services. They excel in company, business and workplace mediation services. Their website is easy to use, has videos, plenty of information is easy to use, the navigation menu could do with a tidy up, but overall, it is one of the better websites we have reviewed.
For some reason Kent has the largest concentration of family mediators. Narrowing it down to the best firm took some doing. We concluded that Kent Mediation Services had the best offering. Accredited through the Civil Mediation Council, amongst other bodies, they specialise in all family and MIAM disputes. Provide commercial and workplace mediation services. They have extremely experienced mediators who are members of numerous other mediation panels.
Mediation Milton Keynes we liked this firm in particular, as their offering lived up to what they promised on their website. The free consult was useful, painless and at our convenience. The mediator was polite, prompt, courteous and professional throughout. He answered several questions, and laid out all of our options very clearly.
Mediation not only do they provide comprehensive mediation services, they provide mediation training, observations, consultancy and a range of other alternative dispute resolution services. Arbitration, adjudication as well as conciliation. With six thousand plus mediations under their belt, it is clear to see why they are experts in their field.
Mediators In London this company stood out specifically because they provide detailed case studies of the types of cases they have mediated. Equally they had several testimonials from clients on the client’s letter headed paper. Usually any reviews if any, are Adam from London said…! Their main area of focus is commercial and workplace mediation.
Mediators Manchester mostly they specialise in construction disputes alongside professional negligence disputes. Residential building disputes also seems to be their speciality. Their mediators appear to be predominantly from construction, surveyor backgrounds.
Surrey Mediation Services workplace disputes appear to be their main area of work, with a heavy focus on charity disputes and mediation training.
In our next article we will dig deeper into other UK providers, and further discuss some of the above mentioned in further detail.
