Balen: Encouraging for the ADR sector
NHS Resolution (NHSR) has announced the launch of a neutral evaluation scheme and awarded the first two contracts to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and Trust Mediation.
Paul Balen, a director of Trust Mediation, said the contract covered all claims against the NHS, which could include costs, contract and property disputes as well as clinical negligence and personal injury cases.
A spokeswoman for NHSR said details of the neutral evaluation scheme would be released when it is formally launched, which is not expected before the end of this year.
Neutral evaluation involves the parties agreeing to obtain an opinion from a neutral person, such as a former judge or KC, on the likely outcome of the case (or specific issues within it) if it went to trial. The opinion is non-binding, although the parties could agree otherwise.
Mr Balen said Trust Mediation had been “working hard” to promote the benefits of additional alternative dispute resolution methods and to see NHSR adopting them more widely was “very encouraging” for the sector.
Neutral evaluation is expected to be particularly useful for complex cases or those where the parties have very entrenched views, or are wide apart in their expectations on compensation. A report on a pilot run by NHSR should be published this year.
NHSR is understood to be developing the criteria which it will apply to cases to decide whether they are suitable for neutral evaluation. The costs are likely to be paid by NHSR where cases are resolved and court proceedings are avoided.
The NHSR spokeswoman said it was “committed to promoting all forms of dispute resolution”.
In terms of mediation more generally, NHSR said that following “a robust and competitive retender process”, it had awarded new four-year contracts to three providers – CEDR, Trust Mediation and Global Mediation. The first two have been on the panel since the service was launched in late 2016.
“Even though the vast majority of claims made against NHS providers are resolved without formal court proceedings (83% in 2024/25), as an organisation we remain committed to reducing the number of cases going into formal litigation even further,” NHSR said.
Over 2,100 cases had been mediated through the service in nearly nine years but there has been no year-on-year growth. NHSR’s 2024/25 annual report showed that 138 claims proceeded to mediation in the year, with 73% of them settling on the day or within 28 days.
Other forms of ADR used by the service are resolution meetings and stock take meetings. It also has a costs mediation service.
The NHSR annual report showed that claimant legal costs increased at twice the rate of the NHS’s in clinical negligence claims in the past year.
It paid out £621m in claimant legal costs in the year to 31 March 2025, a 14% jump on the previous 12 months, while the NHS’s own legal costs were up 7% to £181m. Claimants received approaching £2.3bn in damages, up 8%.
It attributed this increase in the £3.1bn overall cost of claims – £4.9bn when ongoing periodical payments orders (PPO) were included – to more cases resolved between £250,000 and £4.8m and a larger volume of cases settled with a PPO.
Last year was the first time that average claimant costs on claims valued up to £25,000 exceeded damages and this upward trend has continued, with the average rising 5% from £26,095 to £27,380.
For clinical claims valued between £25,001 and £100,000, the average claimant legal costs paid per claim were £55,767, a 1% increase on 2023/24 and the highest since 2017/18, when they were £60,391.
NHSR trumpeted the record level of claims resolved without going to litigation, reaching 83%, having risen steadily since 2016/17, when the figure was 66%.
It received 14,428 new clinical negligence claims and reported incidents in the year, an increase of 5% and surpassing the previous peak in 2019/20, prior to the pandemic.
Only 24 clinical and 21 non-clinical claims were litigated to trial in the year, with no damages awarded in 60% of them, compared with 66% in 2023/24.
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