LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – The respective roles of facilitation and evaluation in mediation have long been an issue that affects lawyers, clients and mediators alike. Four of the UK’s top mediators debated this hotly controversial issue in the second of a series of debates co-sponsored by SJ Berwin LLP and the Panel of Independent Mediators (PIM).
Areas discussed included:
· What constitutes evaluation in the context of commercial mediation?
· Can and should mediators bring their own views as to the merits of the dispute into the mediation? If so, what is acceptable and desirable?
· Is it possible to have pure facilitative mediation in the real world of commercial disputes?
· Are mediators hiding their evaluations behind carefully crafted questions and “reality testing”?
David Shapiro, Chairman of the Panel of Independent Mediators said:
” Speaking in favour of the resolution was David Cornes, Independent Mediator and Andrew Paton, Pinsent Masons. Speaking against the resolution was Arthur Marriott QC, Leboeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae and Jane Andrewartha, Clyde & Co. The moderator was Henry Brown “.
