I read your articles about the dispute between the All England Lawn Tennis Club and 黑洞社区 Design Partnership (BDP) with a deep sigh of frustration (26 June, page 10)

Both BDP, the architect, and Ellmer, the subcontractor, had worked with the club for more than a decade and had almost certainly developed good working relationships.

Litigation is usually a costly, stressful and time-consuming way of discovering what your share of the blame is, and you rarely find out you have none. Litigants typically enter the fray seeing things in black and white but depart counting the cost of discovering that they were grey all along.

Mediation, although not a magic wand, can enable well-advised parties to establish between themselves not only an equitable financial apportionment but also the most effective practical solution to the problem.

Litigation is a costly, stressful and time-consuming way of discovering your share of the blame, and you rarely find you have none

Bart Kavanagh

The courts will never be short of business and there will be many disputes that are capable of resolution in no other way, but this one seems to cry out for an alternative approach and it is regrettable that nobody seems to have thought to guide these hapless souls towards it.

Bart Kavanagh

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