Would you include organisations like ombudsman, complaint handlers and regulators within the definition of proportionate dispute resolution?
A. If they provide a service which helps to resolve disputes proportionately, I dont see why not and of course many of them increasingly use mediation and other approaches as part of their own response to complaint resolution within statutory and non statutory schemes. Q. Do such techniques have anything in common? A. Simply a recognition that disputes and dispute resolution are multi-faceted. In the past it would have been easier to describe them as providing an alternative to state funded agencies such as courts and tribunals. In one sense that is still true but it can give the impression that techniques like mediation are less than mainstream ways of resolving disputes. Mediation in particular is now firmly established both inside and outside the formal judicial structure and receives regular endorsement by both the Government and the judiciary. In a tribunal context it is also provided for in last years Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act. I prefer to use the phrase effective dis
