As a business leader, a legal dispute does more than threaten your bottom line – it can derail growth, damage reputation, and drain your time – so what else is out there?
In most cases, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) offers more efficient and effective ways to handle conflicts, away from the costly and publicly visible environment of the courts.
Thrings’ Commercial Dispute Resolution team take a look at the options available and when they can have the biggest impact for you.
ADR – What has changed?
Covering a range of methods that allow disputes to be dealt with outside of court, ADR has shifted from being ‘anternative’ to mainstream in recent years, with courts now able to compel parties to engage in ADR since the 2023 Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil Court of Appeal case.
This was introduced among amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) – outlining how civil cases should be handled at the High Court – in October 2024, with the court able to consider what direction will enable the case best to progress, including being able to “stay” court proceedings and instead promote ADR.
What ADR routes are out there?
Depending on your situation, there are a number of out-of-court options to consider. These include:
- Negotiation: Parties talk directly to reach an agreement—informal, flexible, and cost effective. Takes minimal time, but lacks external structure or enforceability.
- Mediation: A neutral mediator facilitates discussion, helping parties reach a voluntary settlement. It’s confidential, relatively fast, and keeps control in your hands—but it isn’t legally binding and one party choosing to walk away ends it.
- Conciliation: Similar to mediation, but the conciliator may propose solutions or legal interpretations. Useful when guidance is valuable, though less flexible.
- Arbitration: A private “mini trial” where an arbitrator(s) makes a binding decision. This route is formal, structured, enforceable, and confidential, with clearer rules.
- Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE): An expert reviews the case early and gives an impartial assessment. This often encourages pragmatism in negotiations—without binding outcomes.
- Expert Determination: A specialist decides a factual or technical issue. Ideal for disputes over valuation, technical performance, or interpretation—binding, but limited in scope.
- Ombudsman/sector schemes: Many industries (e.g. property, finance, telecoms) have accessible ombuds services that offer low cost ADR.
With such a wide selection of ADR routes available to businesses, it can be difficult to work out which one is best for you. Ensuring you have legal advice early on can help you not only prepare your case, whether it goes to court or not, it can also help you decide which route is likely to have the best outcome.
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Solving a dispute through ADR has a range of benefits, from being a more time and cost-efficient process, to ensuring you have more control over logistics, flexibility and confidentiality, ultimately reducing stress through a more accessible process.
The drawbacks, however, are that it comes with some legal uncertainty, owing to no precedent, and there can be challenges around enforcement on agreements made during mediation.
The fact is that ADR is now no longer just a “nice to have” and is becoming part of the legal playbook for disputes. Ignoring it can incur hefty costs as well as leave business exposed to reputational damage.
Megan Jefferies, Partner in the Thrings Commercial Dispute Resolution team, said: “ADR isn’t just a cost-saving technique – it’s now woven into the fabric of our civil justice system and courts expect it as the first attempt to solve the issue.
“For business owners facing risk of dispute, ADR should be part of your front-line defence—not a last‑ditch retreat. With the right contracts, strategies, and proactive approach, you can manage disputes on your terms—fairly, privately, and cost‑effectively.”
The Thrings Commercial Dispute Resolution team has an outstanding track record in achieving success in court, also offering expertise in mediation, pre-action work, settlement negotiations and arbitration to deliver commercially focused solutions to minimise disruption to your business. Contact us to find out more.
