Mediation In The UK: A Practitioner’s Complete Guide

Mediation in the UK. What is it, it is a voluntary, confidential process in which an independent mediator helps two or more parties in a dispute reach an agreement they have chosen themselves. The Civil Mediation Council defines it as “a flexible process conducted confidentially in which a neutral person actively assists parties in working towards a negotiated agreement.”

That definition is accurate but it misses the thing that actually makes mediation work. Unlike a court judgment, which is imposed on both sides, a mediated settlement is one the parties have constructed themselves. In our experience, that distinction matters enormously to how people live with the outcome. Our mediators at Effective Dispute Solutions have completed over 6,000 mediations. Our founder, Harvinder Singh Bhurji, has conducted more than 2,000 of those himself, across every category of civil, commercial, workplace, family, and property dispute. What we see, consistently, is that people who reach their own agreement are far more likely to honour it.

How mediation works

Stage 1: Initial consultation

Before anything starts, we speak with each party separately. This takes place one to two weeks before the mediation day, and it is not a negotiation. Nothing said in these calls is passed to the other side without the speaker’s permission.

What we cover in the consultation

We use the consultation to understand the background to the dispute, explain what will happen on the day, and assess whether mediation is appropriate. We also identify what documents or information would help both parties come prepared. People arrive at mediation less guarded when they know what to expect, and that makes a real difference to how quickly the day moves.

Stage 2: Preparation

Once both parties agree to proceed, we confirm the format (in-person or online), the venue or platform, and the structure of the day. Each party receives a preparation pack.

What goes into the preparation pack

The pack covers how to present your position clearly, what a settlement agreement looks like, and what happens if no agreement is reached on the day. Knowing those answers in advance means parties spend less of the mediation day managing uncertainty and more of it negotiating.

Most mediations run for half a day to a full day. Some commercial disputes take two days.

Stage 3: Mediation day

The joint opening session

The day begins with both parties in the same room or on the same call. Each party has an uninterrupted opportunity to say what the dispute means to them and what they need from the process. This is not a debate and the mediator does not allow cross-examination. The purpose is to make sure each side has heard the other’s starting position before any negotiation begins.

Private sessions

After the joint opening, the mediator meets each party separately. These are called caucuses.

What happens in private sessions

The mediator uses private sessions to explore what each party actually needs, not just what they have said they want in correspondence. The two are often different. A party demanding £80,000 may, when pressed, say they mostly want an acknowledgement that something went wrong. A party refusing to negotiate may describe, in private, a number they would actually accept. The mediator’s job is to find those positions and understand whether there is ground between them.

What the mediator carries between rooms

The mediator does not reveal what was said in one private session to the other party without explicit permission. They carry proposals, not confessions. If one party says “I could live with £45,000 but do not tell them that yet,” the mediator does not pass that number across. They might say to the other side: “if a figure in the region of £40,000 to £50,000 were on the table, would that be worth exploring?” This is the craft of the work.

Maintaining confidentiality between rooms

Everything said in private sessions is confidential. Neither the mediator nor the other party can use it in court if the mediation does not settle. This is protected by the without-prejudice rule and by the confidentiality agreement both parties sign before the day begins.

Moving toward agreement

At some point, usually in the afternoon, the negotiation reaches a stage where the gap between parties is small enough to close. The mediator may bring both parties back together or continue working between rooms. There is no formula for this. It depends on the parties, the dispute, and how the day has gone.

Stage 4: The settlement agreement

When terms are agreed, they are written into a settlement agreement on the day and signed by both parties. This is a binding contract and does not need to go to court to be enforceable.

Making it a consent order

When a consent order is worth considering

In some cases, particularly property and financial disputes, parties want the additional security of having the agreement made into a court order. This requires a separate application but is straightforward once you have a signed settlement agreement. We can advise on whether this step is appropriate for your situation.

Types of mediation in the UK

Civil mediation

What civil mediation covers

Civil mediation covers disputes between individuals and organisations that would otherwise go to the civil courts: personal injury claims, contract disputes, professional negligence, and debt recovery. Following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil (2023), courts can now stay proceedings and require parties to attempt mediation. Refusing without a good reason carries cost consequences even if you win at trial.

Learn more about our civil mediation services

Commercial mediation

Commercial mediation handles higher-value disputes between businesses: shareholder and partnership disagreements, supply chain breakdowns, IP and licensing disputes, and business acquisitions gone wrong. These typically involve solicitors on both sides and often run across two days. CEDR estimates mediation saves UK businesses more than £2.8 billion annually compared to the cost of litigation.

Learn more about our commercial mediation services

Workplace mediation

When workplace mediation is appropriate

Workplace mediation is used when a working relationship has broken down to the point where normal management processes cannot repair it. Common situations include interpersonal conflict between colleagues, early-stage grievance situations, disputes between employees and managers, and team dynamics that have stopped functioning. It is faster than a formal HR process and does not carry the adversarial weight that formal proceedings do. In our experience, it works best when it happens early, before positions have hardened into something neither side can walk back from.

Learn more about our workplace mediation services

Family and estate disputes

Some of the most difficult mediations we handle involve families. Not because the legal issues are especially complex, but because the relationships make every conversation harder. When a family is disputing an inheritance, the ownership of a shared property, or the future of a business one of them built, the stakes go beyond money. People bring decades of history into the room with them.

We handle three main categories of family and estate dispute.

TOLATA claims

What TOLATA covers

Disputes under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 arise when two or more people own property together and cannot agree on what happens to it. Cohabiting couples who separate, siblings who inherited a house jointly, business partners who bought property together: the legal framework is the same across all of them. Courts dealing with TOLATA claims now expect parties to have considered mediation before filing. That expectation exists because most TOLATA disputes end in a negotiated division anyway. Reaching that negotiation earlier saves both sides a significant amount in legal costs.

Probate and estate disputes

Disagreements over how an estate should be distributed, whether a will reflects what the deceased actually intended, or whether a family member has a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, are among the hardest disputes to resolve through litigation. The evidence is often ambiguous, the parties are grieving, and court proceedings can stretch over years. Mediation works here because it creates space to negotiate that the formal process cannot offer, and because an agreement reached between family members tends to be more durable than one imposed by a judge.

Family business disputes

Shareholders who are also family members, siblings running a business inherited from a parent, spouses dissolving a company they built together: these situations combine commercial stakes with personal history in ways that standard commercial mediation does not always account for. We have handled enough of them to know that the legal dispute and the family dispute rarely resolve at the same pace, and that a good outcome usually requires working on both at the same time.

Learn more about our family mediation services

Online mediation

Online mediation follows exactly the same structure as in-person mediation, run through a secure video platform with separate breakout rooms for private sessions. It is suitable for most dispute types, removes travel as a barrier, and is generally faster to arrange. We have conducted online mediations for parties across the UK and internationally.

Learn more about our online mediation services

Property and boundary mediation

Property disputes, including boundary disagreements, shared access rights, rights of way, and easement disputes, are among the most emotionally charged we handle. They often involve people who will continue to live near each other regardless of how the dispute ends, which makes a negotiated resolution more durable than a court judgment. A judge can rule on where the boundary sits. A mediator can help the parties work out how they are going to live alongside each other afterwards.

Learn more about our property mediation services

How much does mediation cost?

Fees by dispute type

Mediation compared to court costs

A real numbers comparison

County Court litigation for a £50,000 claim typically runs to between £15,000 and £35,000 per side in legal fees, court fees, and disbursements, across a timeline of 18 to 36 months. A mediated settlement on the same dispute typically costs each party £500 to £1,000 and concludes in a single day. The Ministry of Justice’s own data shows that fewer than 2% of civil claims issued actually reach trial. Most settle, but usually only after both sides have run up costs they would not have faced had they mediated at the outset.

Who pays

Mediation fees are typically shared equally between the parties, though this is subject to agreement and can be arranged differently if the circumstances require it.

The legal framework for mediation in the UK

Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil (2023)

The Court of Appeal’s decision in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416 confirmed that courts in England and Wales have the power to stay proceedings and order parties to attempt alternative dispute resolution, including mediation. This reversed the position in Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust [2004], which had held that courts could not compel parties to mediate.

What changed

Before Churchill, a court could encourage mediation but could not require it. After Churchill, a court can pause your litigation and make mediation a condition of proceedings resuming.

The cost consequences of refusing

Refusing to engage with mediation, without a compelling reason, is now likely to attract adverse costs orders even if you succeed at trial. Courts have already applied that rule in post-Churchill cases.

Civil Procedure Rule changes (2024)

Amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules that came into force in October 2024 require parties in most civil money claims to actively consider mediation at multiple stages of proceedings. The court’s costs assessment now expressly accounts for whether a party unreasonably refused to engage.

The Mediation Act 2024

The Mediation Act, which received Royal Assent in February 2024, brought confidentiality and enforcement provisions into domestic law for cross-border disputes and provides a framework for enforceability of international settlement agreements under the Singapore Convention.

Cross-border disputes

For parties involved in disputes with someone in another country, the Act means a settlement reached through mediation can be enforced across signatory states without having to re-litigate in each jurisdiction separately. Previously that required separate court proceedings in each country.

How to choose a mediator

Not every mediator has the same training, experience, or aptitude for every type of dispute. Accreditation matters but it is not the whole picture.

Look for accreditation first

Civil Mediation Council (CMC)

The CMC is the primary regulatory body for civil and commercial mediators in England and Wales.

What CMC registration actually requires

CMC-registered mediators must have completed an approved training programme, carry professional indemnity insurance, and maintain a complaints procedure. Registration is not a one-time credential. It requires ongoing compliance with the CMC’s code of conduct.

Annual continuing professional development

CMC-registered mediators must complete continuing professional development each year to maintain their registration. This matters because mediators who stop practising regularly lose the edge that makes them effective.

College of Mediators

The College of Mediators is the professional body for family mediators in the UK. If your dispute involves family matters, a College of Mediators member is the right place to start.

CEDR accreditation

The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution runs its own accreditation scheme, particularly well-regarded in commercial mediation. CEDR-accredited mediators have passed a rigorous assessment process that goes beyond completion of a training course.

Why experience in your dispute type matters

A mediator who handles commercial shareholder disputes daily will approach a probate dispute differently from one who handles them occasionally. The process is the same. The instinct for what matters to the parties, and what options they may not have considered, comes from having been in those rooms before. Ask any mediator you are considering how many disputes of your type they have handled and at what value. A mediator who hesitates over that question has probably not handled many.

About our mediators

Harvinder Singh Bhurji

Harvinder Singh Bhurji, LLB (Hons), QDR(M), MCIArb, MCMI, CTLLS, is our founder and one of the UK’s most experienced commercial and workplace mediators. He has been mediating since 2002 and has conducted over 2,000 mediations personally, across every category of civil, commercial, employment, family, boundary, and workplace dispute.

Accreditations

Harvinder is a Fellow of the Civil Mediation Council, a CEDR-accredited mediator, an Academy of Experts accredited mediator, and an ADR Group accredited commercial mediator. He holds qualifications as a certified dispute resolver and as a UK Mediation accredited workplace and community mediator.

Training and specialist work

Since 2007, Harvinder has been part of the global mediation training faculty of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, delivering training in the UK and internationally. Between 2018 and 2020, he was Head of Mediation Training for the ADR Group, the oldest mediation training provider in the UK, established in 1989.

Across EDS as a whole, our mediators have completed over 6,000 mediations. We mention that number not to impress, but because it tells you something concrete: we have seen most of what disputes produce, and very few situations genuinely catch us off-guard.

Where we work

We provide mediation services across England and Wales. Our most active regions include:

London mediation services
Surrey mediation services
Kent mediation services
Birmingham mediation services
Online mediation removes geography as a constraint for most dispute types. If you are based elsewhere in the UK, contact us to discuss your options.