alerts & publications

Law360: Mandatory Mediation May Lie Ahead For England And Wales

In this bylined article in Law360, O’Melveny counsel Margarita Michael and associate Grace Spurgeon analyze mediation as an alternative to dispute resolution across England and Wales.

“The number of mediation cases per year has risen from just below 2,000 in 2003 to around 12,000 in the past year,” the authors note. “In the 2018 Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution Mediation Audit, it was estimated that mediation saved businesses around £3 billion in wasted management time, damaged relationships, lost productivity and legal fees in one year alone. In an increasingly cost-conscious legal market, it is therefore not surprising that the question of whether mandatory mediation should be imposed in England and Wales has become such a pertinent question.”