In 2004, in Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust, the Court of Appeal said that forcing parties into mediation would “impose an unacceptable obstruction on this right of access to the court.”
In 2023, in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, the Court of Appeal decided that courts do have the power to order parties to engage in alternative dispute resolution. It held that the earlier remarks in Halsey had not been binding.