The English courts have for many years recognised the benefits of ADR and encouraged parties to engage in it. That endorsement has become all the more pronounced with recent statements by the Master of the Rolls to the effect that there is nothing "alternative" about ADR. In this regard an issue which arises, and has been the subject of some debate, is the extent to which parties should be compelled to engage in ADR, either at the discretion of judges on a case-by-case basis or as a standard procedural step.
Jan O'Neill has published a post on Practical Law’s Dispute Resolution blog which considers this debate in the particular context of complex and large-scale commercial claims.
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