Regardless of how well we all plan ahead, sometimes life takes an unexpected turn, and a dispute arises. The first step in dispute resolution is to try and understand each parties viewpoint, as sometimes there is simply a misunderstanding that can be clarified and resolved. If that doesn’t work, Court action might seem the obvious way to resolve a claim.
In 2024, approximately 450,000 civil court cases were issued in England and Wales, with the vast majority of those commencing in the County Courts. Yet only around 69,000 cases (c.15%) were reported as defended, and just 12,000 (less than 3%) progressed as far as a court trial.
Put another way, almost all (c.97%) of the disputes that were significant enough to progress into court proceedings were nonetheless resolved without a court trial.
A large majority of court cases– c.85% – were undefended. Some of those might have involved court proceedings acting as a gateway to methods of enforcement action, but that still leaves many cases were there is no obvious reason why the dispute could not have been resolved without the expense of issuing court proceedings, emphasising the importance and benefits for both claimants and defendants of engaging with the courts pre-action protocols.
Yet even of the 50,000 court cases that were defended, c.83% of those were resolved without progressing to a court trial.
Because court trials can be expensive, disruptive and never risk free, various alternatives have evolved to help resolve disputes, some of which are referred to collectively as “Alternative Dispute Resolution”. The above figures suggest that, together, these resolve more cases than the courts do, making them an important consideration when a dispute arises.
It can often be productive to exchange settlement offers, with the aim of finding an outcome that all parties to a dispute would be prepared to live with. However, finding a mutually acceptable outcome is not always straightforward, particularly where there are complex issues or significant emotions involved. Sometimes, it can therefore be helpful to involve a third party to help decide the case and/or to facilitate settlement negotiations. There are several common ways of achieving this:
- Mediation involves an independent “mediator” facilitating confidential negotiations between the parties to the dispute, helping them with trying to find common ground;
- Arbitration provides an alternative to a court trial, either providing a more streamlined process, or enabling the case to be decided by someone with specialist technical knowledge (for example, an engineer or surveyor), and may be obligatory for some cases;
- Adjudication avoids many of the formalities of court proceedings, with each party typically submitting a written summary of their case for the adjudicator to decide, and may be obligatory for some case types; the outcome can be binding or not binding (the later sometimes known as “early neutral evaluation”).
So in the unfortunate event of a dispute arising, try to identify why there are differing views, as that’s an important step towards finding the best way to resolve it.
How Moore Barlow can help
We have a team of experienced business dispute solicitors who will provide you with specialist advice, explain your options and help you to decide how you want to approach the dispute. We focus on resolution allowing you to avoid going to court where possible but where this is not possible, we will put you in the best position to achieve a successful outcome at court.
