Neighbour dispute mediation can be exhausting. You are trying to deal with years of acrimonious wrangling over a dispute which, viewed dispassionately, seems to be completely out of proportion. I’ve been involved in cases where neighbours have filmed each other’s alleged transgressions resulting in the police being called out and further escalation. I have listened to litigants bemoaning their neighbour’s behaviour and sounding in the process like kids in a primary school playground. There is a passage in a land law text book that I like to show litigants; to paraphrase it says that getting involved in a legal dispute over neighbouring property is the easiest way to spend thousands on legal fees (this is no criticism of the lawyers by the way, who, contrary to a commonly held misapprehension, just want to help their clients find a swift, long term solution to the problem).

Emotive headlines

Well in this recently reported case it was a 3 inch strip of land that caused the original problem. The newspapers have lead their articles with emotive headlines like this from the Mirror website

Evicted over 3 inches of land: Milica, 79, forced out despite winning case

You start on Milica’s side of course but when you read the “reported facts” and you may well temper, if not completely change, your view. I saw the headline and thought it’s probably another good example of a case where both parties could have saved themselves a lot of money, stress and aggravation had they attempted an early mediation of the dispute. But do you know what, I think in this case it might just have been a waste of time and added to the already enormous legal costs. I haven’t seen the latest Court of Appeal ruling but a quick search showed the case has already been in that Court twice in 2002 and 2007!

When should you mediate?

There are three simple questions to ask to determine if it is the right time to mediate a case. Sometimes people do not want to settle. Well they have that right but they have to take responsibility for the consequences however severe.