news
June 2008
Ø
Flagship Mediation and Conflict Management Skills Course: September/October
2008
Ø
The Next Stage: Mediation and
Negotiation Skills: September 2008
Ø
Advanced Negotiation Skills:
Negotiating in Difficult Situations: October 2008
Appointment of Jamie Whittle as Associate
to Core
Second Civil Mediation Council
Conference on the Future of Civil Mediation
European Directive on Mediation
Global Negotiation Insight Initiative
Opening Comment
In addition to many local matters, Core’s
recent mediations have involved parties and legal representatives from
Judicial Observations
“ADR in general and mediation in
particular, where it is the appropriate ADR mechanism, must become an integral
part of our litigation culture. It must become such a well established part of
it that when considering the proper management of litigation it forms as
intrinsic and as instinctive a part of our lexicon and of our thought processes,
as standard considerations like what, if any expert evidence is required……
“This will require
education; education on the part of litigants, lawyers and the judiciary.
Lawyers and judges will need educating so that mediation becomes part of the
culture; so that it becomes second nature to us all. The onus lies on you and
me to ensure that litigants appreciate mediation’s many benefits: its
informality, its confidentiality, the possibility it holds of enabling the
parties to reach a consensual resolution to their dispute and to do so more
quickly and at lower cost than might well be possible in the zero-sum game
which is litigation.
“Over and above education,
what can the judiciary do? What we certainly cannot do is sit back and do
nothing. Those days are now long gone. Active case management and the
overriding objective (to deal with cases justly)
very properly put paid to the days of the passive judge.”
Sir Anthony Clarke,
Master of the Rolls, speaking in an individual capacity
at
the Second Civil Mediation Council National Conference on the Future of Civil
Mediation,
Click here for
full text.
“Let me end
by nailing my colours firmly to the mast. I number myself with Sir Anthony
Colman and Sir Gavin Lightman as an enthusiastic supporter of ADR.
“It is madness to incur the considerable expense of litigation – in
disproportionate to the amount at stake –
without making a determined attempt to reach an amicable settlement. The idea
that there is only one just result of every dispute, which only the court can
deliver is, I believe, often illusory. Litigation has a cost, not only for the
litigants but for society, because judicial resources are limited and their
cost is usually born – at least in part – by the state. Parties should be given
strong encouragement to attempt mediation before resorting to litigation. And
if they commence litigation, there should be built into the process a stage at
which the court can require them to attempt mediation – perhaps with the
assistance of a mediator supplied by the court.”
Excerpt
from a speech by Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers,
Lord Chief Justice,
entitled Alternative Dispute Resolution: an English Viewpoint,
Click here
for full text.
“For the
first time in Australia, the Supreme and County courts will be able to send
disputes - even large commercial cases - out of the courtroom and into
mediation, in a pilot project to be announced by Attorney-General Rob Hulls in
Tuesday's state budget.
“We need to think smart when it comes to
attempting to solve disputes, and the courts should be a place of last
resort," Mr Hulls told The Sunday Age. He said that the traditional, adversarial court
system was winner-takes-all, but research had shown that under mediation
disputing parties were more likely to take ownership of the outcome.”
Report from Australia
5 May 2008, The Sunday Age, Melbourne
Click here to
read more.
2008 Training Opportunities
Flagship Mediation
Skills Course
September/October 2008
Dates
for Core’s next flagship Mediation
Training Course – limited places are already filling fast – a maximum of 8
places left.
Ø
Module 1: Dealing with Differences and Disputes using Mediation
17 – 19 September and 2 – 3 October 2008
Ø
Mediator Assessment Module (Optional)
20 and 21 November 2008
**Discounted Early Bird rate available if both modules booked
and paid for by 9 June 2008**
Click
here to read more and for information about registration
before the expiry of the Early Bird deadline or contact Laura Rutherford on
0131-221-2520 or laura.rutherford@core-solutions.com.
“I am now converted to mediation as a fantastic means of
enabling people to see solutions where they could not.”
“My colleagues both work on very high profile projects which
require them to deal with a good deal of conflict and I consider your course to
be the best there is in helping anyone to meet these challenges.”
The Next Stage: Mediation and Negotiation Skills
1 - 2
September 2008 (optional third day: 3 September)
·
Who and what?
For those who have
already undertaken initial mediation training and are looking to refresh and
enhance skills and techniques in both mediation and negotiation - and to learn
about the latest techniques used in difficult situations by leading mediators.
led by John Sturrock, Bill Marsh, Pamela Lyall and
David Fraser
·
Comments from last year’s course:
“This was a hugely
enjoyable and stimulating experience, delivered in an atmosphere of challenge
and support.”
“This was up amongst the
very best courses I have taken part in over the last 20 years.”
“I am sure your
collective professionalism and ease helped each of the participants to achieve
something somewhat better than each had thought imaginable.”
“I had a great time on
your course. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of my fellow attendees. It was a
nice reminder of what a lovely city
Completion of all three
days leads to the Core Certificate in Intermediate Mediation and Negotiation
Skills
For more information, click
here. To download a
registration form, click here or here for online registration, or contact
Advanced
Negotiation Skills: Negotiating in Difficult Situations
13 October 2008,
Presented
by
|
·
Barriers to Effective
Negotiation ·
Principled and
Positional Negotiators ·
The Stages of
Negotiation ·
Separating People from
the Problem |
·
Rigour and Respect ·
Effective Preparation ·
Dealing with Difficult
People ·
Breaking the Logjam ·
Tips and Techniques ·
Interactive examples |
Interested? To
register click here or contact Laura Rutherford on 0131-221-2520 or laura.rutherford@core-solutions.com.
Appointment of Jamie Whittle as Associate to Core
We
are delighted to announce the appointment of Jamie Whittle as an associate to Core. A trained mediator,
solicitor and partner with R&R Urquhart, Inverness, Jamie specialises in
environmental and planning issues and recently authored the excellent book,
"
Already,
Jamie is working with Core, alongside our other recently appointed associate,
Charlie Woods, on a project to raise
awareness of the use of mediation in the planning system in
Second Civil Mediation Council National Conference on the
Future of Civil Mediation, Birmingham
This was an excellent conference, full of
fascinating talks about the role and place of mediation in the civil court
system. In particular, there were
contributions from Jeremy Tagg, Head of ADR Policy and Projects in the Ministry
of Justice, who spoke about low cost mediation services and fast and
multi-track approaches, and from His
Honour Judge Oliver-Jones from
There were several other interesting
contributions about standards and regulation and from Colin Stutt, of the Legal Services
Commission. A leading insurer, David
Fisher of AXA, spoke of the common sense which mediation introduced and was
supported by a senior solicitor who acts for claimants, Martin Cockx. The work of the Lagos
Multi-Door Courthouse in
Click
here to access the Civil
Mediation Council website.
European Mediation Conference, Belfast
The conference, jointly organised by the Scottish
Mediation Network, was a considerable success.
Keynote speeches by Jan Egeland, Director, Norwegian
The
First Minister, Alex Salmond, wrote to all delegates and his letter contained the
following paragraph:
“Ten years ago, on Good
Friday 1998, international mediators were acknowledged for their contribution
to a milestone in the Peace Process in Ireland and it is appropriate that on
the anniversary of that historic occasion the themes of this conference are
building relationships and getting results.
The Scottish Government
is a strong supporter of the increased use of alternative forms of dispute
resolution, including mediation and is currently providing funding in a number
of areas…raising public awareness of the existence and merits of mediation and
looking at the issue of quality assurance.”
“For me one of the highlights of the
recent European Mediation Conference was the workshop by Core on Multi Party
Mediation. 45 delegates from all over
Europe took on the roles of representatives of the various stakeholders in the
climate change debate from the hydrocarbon industry; concerned citizens; to
global bodies like the United Nations.”
Click here
to read more.
European
Directive on Mediation
The European Parliament recently adopted a
Directive on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters. The
purpose of the Directive is to facilitate access to dispute resolution and to
promote the amicable settlement of disputes by encouraging the use of mediation
and by ensuring a sound relationship between mediation and judicial
proceedings.
The Directive addresses a number of important
aspects, such as training, quality, judicial encouragement of the use of
mediation, the confidentiality of the process, the enforcement of agreements
resulting from mediation and the effect of mediation on limitation and
prescription periods.
The
Directive applies to cross-border disputes, although it may well encourage
Member States to apply the provisions of the Directive to internal mediation processes.
Click here
to read the key components of the Directive and here to
read more about the Directive.
Recent Events
Business in
Parliament Conference
Click here
to read remarks (page 20 of the transcript of the Open Forum) on the greater
use of mediation made from the back benches of the Scottish Parliament by
International Trade Mark Attorneys Advanced
Mediation Course, Berlin
John
Sturrock recently had the privilege of co-leading this course, along with Bill
Marsh and two colleagues from the
Entrepreneurial Exchange
A
recent supper event run by the Exchange in
Core Reading
The recently-published: “I Have a Dream: A Conversation between President George W Bush and
Sheikh Osama Bin Laden” (Noa Zanolli,
iUniverse) is worth a read!
Getting
to Yes
Click here
to read
Global
Negotiation Insight Initiative
Click here
to read about the leading edge summer programme which originated in Harvard and
which is now taking place at the Omega Institute in
The Last Word
“It is of course a cliché that you can
take a horse to water but whether it drinks is another thing entirely. That it
is a cliché does not render it the less true. But what can perhaps be said is
that a horse (even a very obstinate horse) is more likely to drink if taken to
water. We should be doing more to encourage (and perhaps direct) the horse to
go to the trough. The more horses approach the trough the more will drink from
it. Litigants being like horses we should give them every
assistance to settle their disputes in this way. We do them, and the
justice system, a disservice if we do not.”
Sir Anthony Clarke, Master
of the Rolls, speaking in an individual capacity
at
the Second Civil Mediation Council National Conference on 8 May 2008
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