Court of Appeal confirms courts can compel parties to engage in ADR – Clyde & Co briefing

On 29 November 2023 the Court of Appeal handed down a judgment in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council.

The judgment held for the first time that the court can lawfully stay proceedings for parties or order them to engage in a “non-court-based dispute resolution process” with certain provisos.

Clyde & Co has produced a briefing paper following the Court of Appeal judgment.

In confirming the court’s power to mandate ADR, this decision settled “an important point of principle and practice”, the legal firm said.

The decision is anticipated to have widespread impact and departed from precedent as previously understood, the briefing noted.

However it leaves open new questions about how and on what basis the court will exercise the power, and with what results, according to Clyde & Co.

The full briefing is available to read, here.

https://www.clydeco.com/en/insights/2023/12/the-court-of-appeal-confirms...