Introduction

There is an old Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times". From a legal point of view, we
cannot think of a time in the recent past that is more interesting than the present. Whatever our
individual views may be on the merits or otherwise of the changes that are taking place, there is
no doubt that we are experiencing a sea change in all aspects of the law and this change is not
merely one of practice and convenience, but of fundamental underlying theory as well.
In April 1999 the Civil Procedure Act was passed in order to update the civil court system to a
more modernised twentieth-century-friendly system. The main purpose behind this act was to
change the attitude of lawyers in the civil court systems who, according to Lord Woolf's report
were manipulating the old court system for their own convenience, which in turn resulted in high
expenses and wastage of time to the users of the systems. The change from old fashioned English
rules to plain English would slowly bring the idea of the legalistic, technical interpretation of
words which were designed to cause controversy between the parties involved so a win-lose
attitude was taken on rather than a more fair and open attitude which was encouraged by Lord
Woolf.
Benefits of ADR
The international literature on ADR identifies five major outcomes from ADR. They are:

increased settlement

improved satisfaction with the outcome or manner in which the dispute is resolved
among disputants

reduced time in dispute

reduced costs in relating to the dispute resolution

increased compliance with agreed solutions.

Among stakeholders there is broad agreement that dispute resolution through ADR mechanisms
can be beneficial. Nevertheless, there are some significant variations among stakeholders about

the extent and nature of those benefits for disputants. ADR practitioners are most enthusiastic
about the benefits of ADR take-up. Lawyers and disputants tend to be more qualified with regard
to the actual benefits associated with ADR.

The majority of lawyers believe that disputants seek ADR resolution of disputes in an effort to:

reduce the cost of a dispute

speed resolution, and

reduce uncertainty around the outcome of judgment in the court system