Balm pushes mediation to frontline for legal disputes

MEMBERS of the British Association of Lawyer Mediators (Balm) are to gather for their first meeting this week.

And civil law reformer Lord Woolf, patron of the new association, has been lined up to speak at the launch on Friday, to be held at the Law Society.

Balm was formed to promote the idea of mediation and the role of lawyers in mediation.

The association's founders believe that mediation will provide a non-adversarial way of resolving disputes in all areas of the law, from family matters to world commerce.

Balm chair Alastair Logan said: "Family mediation is less traumatic and more private. It is confidential and enables parties to be reintroduced to a balanced domestic life more quickly than is possible in the case of protracted court proceedings.

"It also enables issues relating to the children to be looked at in the context of the family as a whole."

Balm says it wants to maintain high professional standards in mediation by introducing a code of practice and by ensuring that lawyers adhere to the European Convention on Mediation

It is open to any solicitor, barrister, advocate, legal executive or paralegal who practices in the UK. The association also hopes to co-operate with other non-lawyer mediation organisations to maintain standards in training.

For information contact Alistair Logan on 01483 3235000.