Court of Appeal mediation scheme - combined form 56A and 56B
| Published date | 21 March 2018 |
Page 1
FORM 56A
Court of Appeal Mediation Scheme
The mediation
The purpose of mediation is to help parties in dispute to resolve their dierences, in whole or in part, outside
the Court process. It is a speedy and informal process, in which an independent person (the mediator) assists
the parties.
Voluntary nature of the Court of Appeal Mediation Scheme
The mediation will only proceed if all parties agree. The parties are not obliged to take part in the scheme,
and they and the mediator are free to terminate the mediation by informing the Civil Appeals Oce or the
administrators of the scheme – Centre for Eective Dispute Resolution (through its service arm CEDR) at any
time.
The mediator has no power to make orders in relation to a case. The mediator's role is to assist the parties to
reach a mutually acceptable solution which will bring the proceedings to an end – ideally as a whole, but if
not, at least in part.
However, it is a condition of the parties entering into the mediation under the Court of Appeal Scheme that
they will earnestly try to reach a solution.
The powers, role and independence of the mediator
The mediator's job is to help the parties see if the matter is capable of amicable resolution, helping them
look at issues in dispute in a number of dierent ways which may extend beyond a merely legal view of the
problems.
The mediator is an experienced and independent neutral person who has been approved for membership
of the panel by the Court and who will help the parties come to their own agreement on how to settle the
dispute. The mediator is not a judge, and furthermore is not employed by or acting as a representative of
HM Courts & Tribunals Service or the Judiciary, and is entirely independent from them.
The mediator is and must be wholly independent of the parties in dispute and before the mediation will
have undertaken a preliminary check to ensure that there is no conict of interest in acting. Once the parties
have received the names of possible mediators, they are asked to bring to the attention of the Scheme
administrator any matter which leads them to believe that a conict of interest which prevents him from
acting as mediator, so that if there is indeed some conict, another mediator may be found.
The mediator is not an adviser to any of the parties. It is not the mediator's role to tell the parties what their
rights are. However, the parties may if they all wish ask the mediator to oer an opinion on matters which arise
if it might help the parties to resolve their disagreement. Not every mediator is willing even to do this, as it
might be seen as compromising neutrality if the view is perceived as unfavourable to one party.
The parties must agree, as a condition of entering the mediation, not to make any claim against the mediator
and/or the Court or its ocials or CEDR, the administrators of the scheme, in connection with the mediation.
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