conciliation

The term conciliation has been defined as “a process of engendering common sense, reasonableness and agreement”.

It is often viewed as a more general form of third party intervention of a facilitative nature, whereas mediation is seen as a more specific form of intervention as the mediator plays a specific role in suggesting possible solutions.

Conciliation is particularly used in the field of employment disputes by ACAS and at the commencement of all employment tribunal proceedings.

Legal advice is often essential at least at the outset of mediation or conciliation procedures in order to ensure that the parties clearly understand the extent to which decisions made are likely to be binding and to what extent concessions made in the conciliation process may be held against them if formal proceedings are subsequently commenced.

NB - This is a summary only. Advice should be sought on specific issues and specific cases. All members of the Dispute Resolution Team at emw law are trained to represent clients in the process mentioned above.