CONFLICT RESOLUTION: MEDIATION, MENTORING & COACHING
For when families face loss and legacy
Court input into Mediation of Inheritance Disputes
The changing landscape:
The 2000s: Parties should consider mediation
The 2010s: Parties are obligated to consider mediation.
The 2020s: Parties can be ordered to mediate.
Compulsory mediation (or other ADR) is now part of our dispute process supported by the government and the judiciary in the battle to keep costs down for the public purse. It's not all about penny-pinching though, ADR works.
If you - or your disputant - needs convincing, here's a round of the 2020s case law and the CPR.
Brooke Homes v Desiman [2025] EWHC 1305 (Ch)
A big money case wrapped up in how the proceeds were to be distributed between the creditors.
The mounting legal costs were eye-watering – over £870,000 – much of which could have gone to the creditors in another more friendly and simpler world than ours.
Judge Sims KC had a few things to say about ADR...
Assensus Limited v Wirsol Energy Limited [2025] EWHC 503 (KB)
Whether the losing party (Assensus) should get out of paying Wirsol's legal costs when Wirsol had refused Assensus' offer to mediate.
Both parties had made Part 36 offers to settle in the life of the dispute.
DHK Retail Ltd. & Others v City Football Group Limited [2024] EWHC 3231 (Ch)
Was the promotional branding of Asashi Super ‘Dry’ 0.0% lager (City’s sponsor) confusing with the SuperDry clothing brand (not City’s sponsor). One party wanted mediation, the other didn’t.
Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416
Originally pesky Japanese knotweed but few now care about that. Spreading like wildfire is the change to the legal landscape. As part of the dispute, one party argued that the other should have explored non-court resolution and that court should have been a last resort.
Stoney-Anderson v Abbas & Ors [2023] EWHC 2964 (Ch)
An executor fought his corner to stay as executor despite all wanting him gone. All parties were set to mediate and then one of them backed-out. Protracted litigation and the inevitable high legal costs and lengthy court resource time followed. Who should pay?
