The courts in London are clogged. Two experienced lawyers want to clear the backlog

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Two experienced London lawyers are launching a new mediation company, a bid to speed up the resolution of legal disputes amid notoriously long delays in bringing cases to court.

Michael Lerner, a partner at Lerners LLP, who has been a lawyer for 50 years, will retire on December 31 and start a new brokerage business with longtime London lawyer David MacKenzie.

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“Lawyers have started looking for alternative ways to resolve disputes. Mediation is, quite frankly, the fastest and cheapest,” Lerner said.

“There’s nothing fun about a lawsuit. It’s something that weighs on people’s minds every day. Anything we can do to alleviate that problem and speed up that process is welcome.”

Lerner MacKenzie Mediation will officially launch in January 2025 and start booking dates with clients early in the new year, Lerner said.

The new firm will handle a wide range of litigation matters, from personal injury and employment matters to construction and contract disputes. It will not deal with family law issues, matters best left to mediators with specific experience in that area, Lerner said.

Mediators resolve legal disputes by facilitating back-and-forth between opponents with the ultimate goal of reaching an agreement. They are external, impartial persons hired by the parties. Unlike arbitrators, mediators do not decide which side wins.

In London, mediation is a voluntary step in the litigation process, but the province requires mediation for cases in Toronto, Ottawa and Windsor.

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Civil matters, such as lawsuits, can take years to be heard because they are a lower priority than other types of legal issues heard by Ontario courts. Due to their seriousness, criminal cases are handled first, Lerner said. Family law cases are second in priority for courts, he said.

The backlog caused by the pandemic has further exacerbated the situation for people filing lawsuits.

“The inability of courts to give people involved in lawsuits a speedy trial is truly true egregious,” Lerner said.

“If you were to come into my office today and say you wanted to file a claim, I would tell you that my reasonable expectation is that you will see the inside of a courtroom sometime in 2029, probably not sooner and probably later.”

Sometimes people get caught up in thinking that the courtroom is the only place to resolve a legal dispute, MacKenzie said.

“Often cases can be resolved, but it takes the door of the courtroom to get people to compromise. That really shouldn’t be the case,” said MacKenzie, who will continue to run his own office in addition to his mediation work.

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“If the message gets out about why mediation is such a good idea, I think it will take some of the pressure off the courts and give people their lives back.”

MacKenzie said he has always been interested in mediation, and his opponents and close friends have suggested it would be a good fit.

Lerner said he gained experience in mediation through his work as vice-chair of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a position he held for 10 years. Some of his colleagues encouraged him to also work in mediation, he said.

While it will be difficult to leave Lerners LLP behind after five decades, Lerner said he is keen to make room for a younger generation of lawyers to make their mark on London’s legal scene.

“This is a way to stay involved (in London’s legal community) and keep in touch with my Lerners colleagues,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. It’s a new adventure.”

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