Bill Braithwaite QC, a leading personal injury lawyer, has suggested that a neutral facilitator would be better than a non-specialist judge in a complex personal injury claim.[i] The neutral facilitator, he says, could be ‘a personal injury litigator, who has sufficient experience to understand and deal with all the usual issues which arise in a claim’. This person would be appointed as soon as a major claim is notified, with agreement of both parties.
He claims that the benefit of this would be:
‘The parties would therefore take charge of selecting the facilitator, unlike the position at present where the court imposes its selection, and where only minority of High Court judges are from a personal injury background’.
Braithwaite also claims that:
‘In addition to selecting the neutral facilitator, the parties would want to agree what powers they would give to that person. The possibilities are endless; he or she could be limited to only one of the many forms of ADR, or they could be given a free hand to decide which method of ADR would work best for any individual issue’.
It has been stressed that the use of neutral facilitators is more than just mediation or the use of settlement meetings and has gained the support of AXA Insurance, with discussions being had with claimant and defendant law firms and other major insurers.
[i] Neil Rose, ‘Replace Judges With Neutral Facilitators To Handle Major Personal Injury Cases, Says QC’ (Litigation Futures 10 November 2016)< http://www.litigationfutures.com/news/replace-judges-neutral-facilitators-handle-major-personal-injury-cases-says-qc> accessed 10 November 2016.