MEDICO LEGAL M A G A Z I N E
MEDIATION IN CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE CLAIMS THE NEW NHS LA SCHEME By Brian Dawson, Director Trust Mediation The NHS Litigation Authority (now renamed NHS Resolution from April 2017) recently launched its new Claims Mediation Service following a successful pilot and a public tender. The tender specification demonstrated that quality was a high priority for the NHS LA: “Delivery of high quality mediation services for the resolution of disputes arising from incidents, litigated and pre-action clinical negligence and personal injury claims and/or the high quality delivery of mediation services for the resolution of disputes arising from the recoverability of legal costs.” Independent mediation organisations, Trust Mediation Limited and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) were appointed to mediate disputes arising from clinical negligence and personal injury and incidents and claims. Costs Alternative Dispute Resolution (CADR) was appointed to mediate disputes arising from the recoverability of legal costs. These organisations were awarded a 2 year contract commencing 5th December 2016.
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CEDR is a long established, well respected organisation able to offer a depth of experience. Trust Mediation believes that specialist knowledge in the subject matter of a mediation enables them to quickly understand and overcome the issues between the parties. For this reason their panel of Clinical Negligence Mediators are all specialists in the field. It is a fundamental principle of mediation that the mediator is impartial so that he or she can discuss confidential matters without reservation and assist the parties in identifying the issues between them and overcoming them to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution. The mediation organisations are independent and well established and, further, independence is integral to the role of the individual mediator. It follows that the parties can have total confidence in the independence of the mediators involved in providing high quality mediation services under this scheme. Lawyers are trained, and some would say very well trained, to prosecute or defend a claim for
