Mediation: Good for Business

Recently announced figures indicate that commercial medation has saved businesses £6.3 billion in the UK since 1990 in avoiding wasted management time, damaged relationships, lost productivity and legal fees.

By achieving earlier resolution of cases that would otherwise have proceeded through litigation, it is estimated that, looking ahead as the use of mediation expands, the commercial mediation profession will save business in excess of £1 billion a year.

The total value of cases mediated each year is approximately £4.1 billion. Since 1990, the total value of mediated cases is estimated to be £23.5 billion. (Source: CEDR)

Supporting these findings, the law firm, Herbert Smith has recently published the results of resarch into how large organisations across a range of industry sectors, including BP, RBS, GE, KPMG, Royal & Sun Alliance and Virgin, are using "ADR".

Those businesses which use early case assessment and systematic managements of disputes, including mediation, as central to their resolution culture achieve greater savings in external costs and in management time spent on dispute resolution. Mediation was overwhelmingly the most frequently used "ADR" process.