Recently in an unreported decision, two Court of Appeal judges refused to authorise a Tomlin Order incorporating the terms of a mediated agreement, re-opened the dispute, then listed it for a further hearing.
This unusual step should be read in the context the Order was made (see below), but its overriding effect on the ever-evolving relationship between mediation and litigation will expose further the possible confusion and disagreement in the appellate judiciary on the status and effect of mediated settlements, as well as their position in insolvency dispute resolution, following the implementation of the Woolf reforms.
