Mr Justice Lightman's speech

In 2003 Lightman J gave a speech in which he compared at length "the trials of litigation" with ADR, and he concluded with this:

"The loss of a good night's sleep is a real price to pay for litigation, a price which practitioners and indeed the parties all too often forget or underplay when the decision to litigate is made. In the case of mediation everyone can be the winner; the costs can be small; a result may be achieved in a short passage of time; and personal relations may be salvaged. Mediation is not a universal panacea: it has its limitations and it is not always applicable. But where it is available in my view no sane or conscientious litigators or party will lightly reject it if he fairly weighs up the alternative namely litigation, and any adviser who does so invites a claim in negligence against him."