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Mediation Services

our mediation services help you achieve settlement of your dispute without invoking formal legal proceedings. Find out how - call 0845 504 9733. The Vinden Partnership.

Dispute Management FAQ's

Preparing for Mediation

If you have been involved in a dispute in the last few years that has ended up in the Courts, the chances are that you will have heard all about mediation. Last month’s article “Stop Gambling and Try Mediation” was written to make readers aware of the Court’s increasing interest in requiring parties to try mediation as an alternative to other more expensive methods of dispute resolution.

Last Ditch Mediation

Regular readers of this column will know that I have something of a passion for mediation. If I ruled the world every day would be Christmas (only joking – you should see Mr Vinden’s credit card bills this year) and I would compel every party to every civil dispute to try mediation as a pre-cursor to litigation in the Courts. Why? -because I am convinced that mediation serves the parties better than the obscenely expensive alternatives.

What is Mediation?

The process of Mediation is one of the most common forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR. The 'Alternative' referred to is the alternative to a trial and process leading up to trial.

More Jaw, Less War

With reports that the Dubai Government is about to pass a law that will require all construction disputes to go through a mediation centre before they can be litigated in the courts, Managing Director of The Vinden Partnership, Peter Vinden, calls for similar action to be taken in the UK.

Whose dispute is it anyway?

I talk a lot with my fellow mediators. We share experiences, good and bad. Give each other tips, de-brief one another and generally trade war stories. So I know that it is not uncommon for mediators to have to deal with an aggressive party or representative

Difficult Conversations, Hostage Negotiation and Mediation (01)

North West Mediator, Peter Vinden, talks about using his hostage negotiation training in mediation.

Dispute Management

For immediate professional construction dispute assistance call 0845 504 9733 for an objective case appraisal. Construction Dispute Management Bolton, Nottingham, London, Manchester

Compulsory mediation?

Anybody reading this article who has been involved in a construction dispute will know that it can be an expensive business. Lawyers do not wear nice suits because they are cheap to hire!

Bovis Lend Lease Limited V Triangle Development Limited

The decision should not be enforced where the contract provided that in the event of the contract's determination, the contractual provisions requiring further payment were not to apply

Difficult Conversations, Hostage Negotiation and Mediation

If you want to know the meaning of pressure, try negotiating with a hostage taker whose demands are extremely unreasonable and whose motivations are political, racial or based on religious beliefs when a person's life is on the line - then you will really experience what it is to have a difficult conversation!

Ballast plc V The Burrell Company (Construction Management) Limited - Part I

Adjudicator guilty of an error of law by having refused to decide the dispute referred to him on the grounds of the contract's lack of clarity and of the parties' failure to follow what the adjudicator termed "the strict contractual code"

Ballast plc V The Burrell Company (Construction Management) Limited - Part II

Adjudicator guilty of an error of law by having refused to decide the dispute referred to him on the grounds of the contract's lack of clarity and of the parties' failure to follow what the adjudicator termed 2the strict contractual code"

Case Presentation and Dispute Settlement

Professional case presentation in dispute settlement negotiations can avoid legal proceedings. Find out how - call us on 0845 504 9733.

Total M&E Services Ltd V ABB Technologies Ltd

The management contractor's application for execution to be stayed on the summary judgment awarded in the trade contractor's favour to enforce the adjudicator's decision on the ground of the trade contractor's financial position should be rejected

Litigation Support

Negotiations failed? Call 0845 504 9733 now for construction dispute litigation support advice.

RG Carter Ltd v Edmund Nuttall (Part I)

The sub-contractor was entitled to have the dispute adjudicated despite the additional dispute as to how the contract came into being and the full extent of the documents incorporated into the contract

Arbitration

Call 0845 504 9733 for immediate assistance and advice with resolving your construction dispute by arbitration.

Andrew Wallace Ltd V Noon

The fact that the adjudicator had acted as an adjudicator and a mediator in relation to other disputes to which the referring party had been a party did not mean that the adjudicator was apparently biased in relation to the adjudication which formed the subject matter of the instant case

Comsite Projects Limited V Andritz AG

The work under the building services sub-contract for the dryer building which formed part of the project of the construction of a new waste water treatment works and sewage sludge recycling centre was a "construction operation"

South West Contractors Ltd v Birakos Enterprises Ltd

The adjudicator was not in breach of the rules of natural justice by allegedly having failed to consider its case that the project manager's loss should have been mitigated on the basis that the court should not minutely examine an award to he had made such a mistake

Statutory Adjudication

Statutory adjudication for construction dispute resolution. Call 0845 504 9733 for immediate assistance and advice with resolving your construction dispute. The Vinden Partnership Manchester Bolton Nottingham London.

Chaired Solutions - A new kid on the block?

I attend a lot of settlement meetings with clients. These are invariably conducted on a “without prejudice” basis and the purpose of such a meeting is both simple and given away by its title.

Earls Terrace Properties Ltd v Waterloo Investments Ltd

The effect of the deed of variation between the developer and the employer entered into after the Construction Act 1996 came into force, which varied the fee related provisions of the services agreement entered into before that date, was not that the Act applied to the services agreement

Collins (Contractors) Ltd v Baltic Quay Management (1994) Ltd

The propositions advanced by Jackson J in Amec Civil Engineering v The Secretary of State for the Environment (2004) should be accepted and, in particular, the proposition that whilst the mere making of a claim did not amount to a dispute, a dispute would be held to exist once it could reasonably be inferred that a claim was not admitted

Management Solutions & Professional Consultants Ltd V Bennett (Electrical) Services Ltd

The effect of the oral instructions which varied or increased the scope of the sub-sub-contract works was not to remove the sub-sub-contract from the scope of section 107 of the Construction Act

Primus Build Limited v Pompey Centre Limited

The adjudicator’s decision should not be enforced on the grounds that the adjudicator acted without jurisdiction and in breach of the rules of natural justice by calculating the construction manager’s loss of profits based on an approach which neither party had raised before him

Whose dispute is it anyway?

I talk a lot with my fellow mediators. We share experiences, good and bad. Give each other tips, de-brief one another and generally trade war stories. So I know that it is not uncommon for mediators to have to deal with an aggressive party or representative.