Alternative Dispute Resolution

Whether in a business setting or personal setting, disputes can arise when individuals don’t agree. However, it’s often possible to avoid costly litigation or going to court by resolving issues using Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provides a confidential and alternative method of tackling legal disputes which avoids going to court. The most common types of ADR are conciliation and mediation, arbitration and adjudication.

These involve an independent trained mediator to facilitate communication between the two parties having the dispute, with the aim of achieving a settlement or resolution. Conciliation is generally used for employment situations rather than commercial disputes. Conciliation is a compulsory process before an individual wish to bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal.

This is more formal than mediation and involves a process in which the dispute is resolved by the decision of an arbitrator (a nominated third party who is qualified to handle arbitration).

Med-Arb is the merging of two well-established processes for conflict resolution into one hybrid process. Med-Arb, short for “mediation-arbitration,” is a two-step dispute resolution process that borrows from both methods of dispute resolution.

This form of ADR is generally reserved for disputes which arise out of construction contracts. This decision is final and binding.