General Expertise
The acceptance and application of alternative dispute resolution continues to increase. Many more organizations are implementing systems of dispute resolution not as crisis intervention but as one of the indispensable tools of how they do business. The aim in many cases is to deal with a business conflict before it escalates to the point where relationships become irreparably harmed and business litigation is unavoidable.
Governments at all levels are using alternative dispute resolution to resolve difficult environmental and public policy conflicts as well as class-action lawsuits and psychologically disturbing claims arising from decades-old allegations of abuse. More commonplace disputes with suppliers and citizens are increasingly being diverted from costly and time-consuming litigation.
Law Societies have begun using alternative dispute resolution strategies to resolve lawyer-client disputes.
The Courts have shown an increasing interest and willingness to adopt mediation in a broad variety of cases. As courts and administrative agencies become swamped, alternative dispute resolution can provide an access to parties who feel excluded from the litigation process.
Alternative dispute resolution is an indispensable tool in the armoury of approaches to resolving conflict, the nature, origins and solution of which continues to test our ingenuity.
As traditional resistance to alternative dispute resolution continues to erode and its techniques and effectiveness grows, so its acceptance in the management and resolution of conflict is more widely embraced
Colin Taylor, Q.C. is a widely recognized and respected practitioner of alternative dispute resolution in all of its many forms including:
- Arbitration
- Mediation
- Mediation/Arbitration
- Final Offer Selection
- Neutral Evaluation
- Conflict Management
- Facilitation
- Pre-litigation mediation
- Dispute Systems Design
Over the past 30 years Mr. Taylor has been called upon to apply his mediation, or assisted negotiation, skills in many high profile public sector disputes. He was appointed Industrial Inquiry Commissioner in the 1998 pulp and paper industry dispute in British Columbia; Special Officer in Alberta with respect to the Gainers and Maple Leaf Meats public disputes and Public Inquiry Commissioner in Prince Edward Island to inquire into and report on certain matters relating to health reform.
Mr. Taylor has successfully mediated numerous private sector disputes over the past 30 years including those in the steel industry; forestry; pulp and paper; energy; meat packing industry, construction and retail fields.
As an arbitrator, Mr Taylor has conducted hearings and issued awards in hundreds of cases in both the private and public sectors and in both the commercial and labour fields. In the latter field, Mr. Taylor's awards have been published and cited widely, including in the LAC and Lancaster series.
Mr. Taylor has designed various procedures to suit the particular needs of disputants, including a number of expedited arbitration procedures and harassment investigation and mediation techniques. As well, he fashions innovative strategies to fit specific fact situations such as senior executive to senior executive assisted negotiation. A variation of this has Mr. Taylor making a final determination of those aspects of the dispute on which the senior executives cannot reach agreement.
One of the significant advantages of alternative dispute resolution, championed by Mr Taylor, is the ability of the parties to construct a dispute resolution mechanism to best serve their objectives and capacities to resolve a particular issue.
The confidence placed in Mr. Taylor as a respected and objective neutral is evidenced by his conduct of many disputes in which the parties have agreed that issues unresolved in the mediation process are determined by him in binding arbitration - the process referred to as "mediation/arbitration".
Mr. Taylor's mediation philosophy includes the view that there is a significant positive correlation between pre-mediation conferences and a successful resolution of the dispute. He is a strong advocate of filing Statements of Issues, followed by conferences with the parties and a process of evaluative mediation in advance of the actual mediation. In this way many disputes are settled before formal mediation takes place.
Mr. Taylor's business and business law background are significant assets in the mediation and arbitration of commercial disputes. He brings to the process a wealth of experience, an understanding of business and sound judgment in the efficient, fair and business-like resolution of disputes.
Mr. Taylor has assisted business with productivity issues, sometimes referred to as "relationship building", a process of discovering the causes of productivity declines and inefficiencies and forging relationships among the affected groups to remedy the deficiencies.
Mr. Taylor's mediation skills have also been applied in pre-litigation matters; to streamline discovery and facilitate the exchange of information. This process often provides decision makers with the comfort and confidence necessary to try to work things out.
