Mediation

“We will just sue them!”

We have all been there; the parties have arrived at a dispute impasse and there is a tension over various unresolved matters. People in your team begin voicing the idea of taking the dispute to the courts or arbitration. Your counsel has started billing hours to your project cost code!

But what if the parties could take a step back, think clearly with their eyes on the big picture, and sort it out themselves (with a little help along the way). In many cases, the parties will be working with each other on the next project.

Mediation is an alternative dispute resolution process (ADR) tuned to the broad needs of the parties focussed on the needs of the parties. I am an accredited Centre for Effective Dispute resolution (CEDR) and International Mediation Institute (IMI) qualified facilitative mediator.

Hailed as the up-and-coming dispute resolution process within the construction industry, mediation allows parties to form their own agreement to settle the dispute. The benefits being your mediated agreement can encompass wider business-to-business issues and provide solutions that legal remedies cannot. Contrast this with adjudication, arbitration or litigation; where the decision maker’s role is typically limited to the holding of the law to the facts of a narrow crystalised dispute.

There is an opportunity in the construction industry for mediation to continue to grow as a method of settling disputes. It has been said that 80-90% of mediations settle on the day*, which when contrasted with the time and cost associated with adjudication and arbitration (and the temporary ‘finality’ of adjudication) we can see why construction parties have a growing interest in mediation.

As a resident of Italy with British citizenship, Andrew Davidson has freedom to travel throughout the Schengen area and the United Kingdom without the need for a visa. This allows for straightforward convening of a mediation session at a site of your choice, where the data suggests that the decision makers have a good likelihood of settling your dispute by the end of the day.

Andrew has wide-ranging construction experience as both a degree qualified Quantity Surveyor and ‘hands-on’ Project Manager, latterly focussing on claims management, with a postgraduate diploma in Construction Law, Adjudication and Arbitration. His legal training is founded on the common laws of Scotland and England & Wales whilst including a study of comparative law of the civil laws of Italy and other jurisdictions within Europe.

*David Richbell, ‘Mediation of Construction Disputes’, section 3.2, Blackwell Publishing (2008)