In March 2001 the Lord Chancellor made a formal pledge committing government department’s agencies to settle legal cases by ADR techniques whenever the other side agrees to it. In Royal Bank of Canada
-v- SOS for Defence (2003) Lewiston J made it clear that where a successful government department refuses to mediate in breach of the pledge to settle disputes by ADR where possible, they will be deprived of their costs. (The text of the pledge appears in Appendix 1 below).

However, the Court of Appeal in Halsey disagreed with the great weight attached to the pledge in Royal Bank of Canada. They held that public bodies should be dealt with in the same way as other litigants. If a case is suitable for ADR, then it is likely that a party refusing to agree to it will be acting unreasonably, whether or not it is a public body to which the Government’s ADR pledge applies.