Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2024] EWCA Civ 1416. How a Japanese Knotweed claim changed the law on mandatory ADR

Read about this key case and how it came to shape the law on mediation - from a participating lawyer. 

Iain Wightwick
Barrister of Unity Street Chambers, Bristol, junior counsel for the Defendant Appellant

Key Words: Alternative Dispute Resolution, mandatory mediation, non-court-based dispute resolution, litigation

Abstract
This article discusses the decision in Churchill v MTCBC and its likely impact on dispute resolution in England and Wales. It looks at the dispute behind the Court of Appeal hearing and how lawyers on conditional fee agreements are changing the legal landscape in England and Wales. It suggests that this claim is a good example of why it should be mandatory except for very good reasons that ADR, or ‘non-court based dispute resolution’ should be attempted before a litigant is permitted to use valuable court time and run up large legal bills. It also agrees with the recent tendency to relabel ‘alternative’ as ‘appropriate’.