Charity trustees may at times disagree or there may be a dispute
between the trustees and the members or between the members
themselves. Left unresolved, disputes such as these can lead to a
breakdown in the effective governance and day-to-day management of
their charity.
Acting to resolve disputes is therefore part of a trustee's
duty. The Charity Commission will only get involved when they have
evidence that all other available methods of resolving the dispute
have been attempted and failed. In cases where charities need the
Commission's consent to take court action, it will normally expect
that the parties have tried mediation before giving consent.
Mediation is a private, consensual and informal
process where the parties come up with the solution. It is
therefore appropriate for resolving trustee and membership disputes
and avoiding damaging publicity. We offer a specialist mediation
service in BL Resolve that can provide trained
and accredited mediators to mediate disputes for charities. These
include mediators with an understanding of the charity sector. BL
Resolve is a Civil Mediation Council accredited mediation provider
and a member of the National Mediation Helpline. We can also offer
the services of trained solicitor advocates to represent charities
in mediations.
The use of alternative
dispute resolution/mediation is not always appropriate and we offer
a full traditional litigation service for those disputes. This
includes representation before the new Charity Tribunal.
