The next 12-18 months should prove to be eventful times for all those involved. CEDR is currently running on average fifty mediations per month, but this is expected to rise to 80-100 during 2000. Although mediation is in a period of 'bedding in', with a tendency to try it in everything, this is expected to refine over time. The support of the courts is already doing much to improve the acceptability of mediation in shipping, where it is expected to begin to make small inroads as solicitors start to realise that they have to take it seriously. The introduction of mediation clauses into contracts is also expected to increase as the time and cost savings of bringing disputes to settlement earlier are taken on board.
Insurance is cited as a future growth area.
Some insurers are very sophisticated in their use of mediation, whereas others are still using it on an ad hoc basis. Its use on a public or political level should also aid awareness, the recent work by Senator Mitchell in Northern Ireland being a particularly topical example of mediation at work. As Graham Clark points out, most business is concluded and performed without dispute. Even when disputes arise, most are settled amicably either directly between the principles or via their intermediaries. Inevitably, some will end up in the hands of the lawyers.