Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Society

What is ADR?

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) describes a range of processes for parties to utilise to settle disputes, sometimes with the help of a third party. Regarding the Civil Procedure Rules (CPRs), the Pre-Action Protocols states: Before commencing with court proceedings, the courts expect the parties to consider a form of ADR to assist with the settlement.

Some forms of ADR include Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration and Conciliation and many more!

Advantages of using ADR can include the parties maintaining their relationship, it’s cost effective and time effective compared to going to court where it could take up to 2 years to be heard with the backlog due to Covid-19. In addition, the parties have more control over the process and the results and can request terms that a court might not have the discretion for. For example, the parties could ask for an apology to help resolve their dispute through mediation.

Why should you join us?

ADR is becoming increasingly popular so we as a society believe it would in the students interests to learn about ADR before they decide to go into practice.

We plan to help students gain confidence through the range of events we plan to hold and learn new skills to aid them when they go into practice. We also want our members to have fun and meet a range of new people and make new friends.

Events:

Throughout the academic year, we plan to hold a range of different events which include academic events and social events.

For example, some events we plan to include:

• An Ice-Breaker Social.
• Movie Nights.
• ADR talk sessions from external speakers.
• ADR based competitions for students to get involved in and practice their ADR skills.