Core marks 20 years with interview event

Scottish mediation service Core Solutions reaches 20 years in business this month. 

The anniversary will be marked on Thursday 21 January, when Core’s founder and senior mediator, John Sturrock QC, will reflect on those 20 years in an online interview with his colleague and fellow mediator, Liz Rivers.

Launched at a time when mediation was little known outside the family law sphere, carrying out just one mediation in its first year and four in its second, Core is now approaching its 1,000th mediation, in disputes ranging across business contracts, employment issues, professional negligence, property problems, agriculture, local and national government issues and more. 

But mediation is still relatively rarely used: an expert group report published in 2019 called for a more proactive approach to enabling people to mediate their civil disputes, and Mr Sturrock believes there is much more to do.

Based until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on personal contact and physical presence, he adds that mediation, and the associated training, have adapted to taking place online: "I think these are here to stay and certainly they offer a whole new way of doing things, often for the better."

• The Academy of Experts has published new guidelines for experts participating in commercial mediation, designed to "give clear and concise assistance to experts and those instructing them", and to "ensure that experts can properly assist in mediations whilst still complying with their overriding duty to the court".