Central London County Court
Central London County Court was the first court in England to establish a court-based mediation scheme. This was first piloted in 1996, and ran for ten years. The mediation was provided by approved commercial mediators at a subsidised cost for all fast and multi track cases (cases above £5,000), and took place in small rooms on the court premises.
From 2007, all county court mediation in England and Wales is organised through the National Mediation Helpline, not through individual courts. This means that anyone now making an application to Central London County Court will be given a CLCC Mediation leaflet and invited to try mediation. If both parties agree to mediate, their details will be passed to the National Mediation Helpline, which will arrange a mediation appointment with a local provider. The mediation will be arranged at a location, and at a time, that is convenient to the parties, and room may be made available in the court building during the day.
You can find out more about county court mediation on these pages on ADRnow:
Civil and commercial disputes
County Court mediation
Small claims mediation
Research
The mediation scheme at Central London County Court has been extensively researched by Hazel Genn, who published two research reports in 1998 and 2007. She found that:
- Take-up was very low in the early years of the scheme; fewer than 5% of cases went to mediation
- Mediated cases settled sooner than non-mediated cases
- But if parties tried mediation and it didn’t work, the case took longer and cost more
- Cases settled at mediation for much lower amounts than cases which were settled between solicitors, or which went to a hearing
- There were very few problems with enforcing mediated settlements – most people did what they had agreed to do
- There was a fairly high satisfaction rate – people liked the chance to have their say in person, and to take part in an informal, non-legalistic process
- After courts began imposing cost penalties for unreasonably refusing to mediate, more people tried the mediation scheme at Central London County Court, but fewer succeeded in reaching a mediated agreement
A summary of Hazel Genn’s two research reports into the Central London County Court mediation scheme can be found on these pages on ADRnow:
1998 Central London County Court
2007 Central London County Court
Contact details:
Central London Civil Justice Centre
13-14 Park Crescent
London W1B 1HT
Tel: 020 7917 5000
Email: enquiries@centrallondon.countycourt.gsi.gov.uk
May 2009
