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This book gives an insight into the mediation and arbitration of disputes,with the emphasis on personal injury and medical negligence disputes. The book explores the basics of ADR and the procedure involved. It also provides an insight into choosing the most appropriate process for a dispute. This book will be mandatory reading for every lawyer and claims manager of insurers in the medico-legal field and will also be of interest to managers of hospitals, both private and NHS, and those in industry as well as the unions charged with advising those involved in claims.
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MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION CP Cavendish Publishing Limited TITLES IN THE SERIES ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY CARDIOLOGY DENTISTRY EAR, NOSE AND THROAT GENERAL PRACTICE MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION NEUROLOGY OPTHALMOLOGY MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION Dr Peter d’Ambrumenil MBBS (Lond), MRCS (Eng), LRCP (Lond), ACIArb SERIES EDITOR Dr Walter Scott, LLB (Hons), MBBS, MRCGP, DObstRCOG CP Cavendish Publishing Limited First published in Great Britain 1997 by Cavendish Publishing Limited, The Glass House, Wharton Street, London WC1X 9PX. Telephone: 0171-278 8000 Facsimile: 0171-278 8080 © d’Ambrumenil, P 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner. The right of the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Any person who infringes the above in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. d’Ambrumenil, Peter Lance Mediation and arbitration 1. Arbitration and award – England 2. Dispute resolution – (Law) – England 3. Mediation – Law and legislation – England I. Title 344.2’079 1-85941-155-X Printed and bound in Great Britain FOREWORD Those who have shown an interest in the ‘medico-legal practitioner’s series’ may like to learn something about its origins and the history of its development. With this objective in mind I will devote a few moments to the past and I will then turn to the future which is, after all, even more important for us. I first conceived the idea of such a theme in the Summer of 1994. By that stage I had been preparing reports for lawyers on cases of alleged medical negligence for about five years. I had also been looking at other doctors’ reports for the same length of time and it was becoming increasingly apparent to me that one of the lawyers’ most difficult tasks was to understand the medical principles clearly. To be fair to the lawyers, there were some doctors who did not always make matters very clear. This, coupled with the difficulty which many doctors have in understanding the legal concept of negligence and related topics, merely served to compound the problem. It therefore occurred to me that a possible solution to the difficulty would be to develop some material on medical topics written by doctors who had a particular interest in the medico-legal field. The authors would require at least four attributes. First, they would have to be specialists in their own field. Secondly, they would need the ability to explain their subject to non-medical readers in clear language that was easy to follow. Put another way there was no case for writing a medical textbook for their students or colleagues. Thirdly, they would require a fair amount of experience in medico-legal reporting, analysis of cases and dealing with lawyers who were defending or advancing cases. This would give them an understanding of how the lawyer’s mind works and an appreciation of t