A cautionary tale
Mediation does not take place in all cases. In his novel Bleak House, Charles Dickens writes of a probate lawsuit in England dealing with a large inheritance, in which it apparently did not occur.
Dickens introduces the reader to the case — Jarndyce and Jarndyce — in the first chapter (the word “and” appears between the names of the parties in English law, not “versus” as in the US):
In the end, as the reader learns in Chapter 65, the case is decided by a judge in the High Court in London. The narrator happened to be passing by as the final hearing was wrapping up and a crowd had formed outside:
Dickens then describes the scene as the papers are removed from the High Court: “We stood aside, watching for any countenance we knew; and presently great bundles of paper began to be carried out — bundles in bags, bundles too large to be got into any bags, immense masses of papers of all shapes and no shapes, which the bearers staggered under, and threw down for the time being, anyhow, on the Hall pavement, while they went back to bring out more.”
It turned out there was nothing left for Richard and Ada, the prevailing parties, as “the whole estate is found to have been absorbed in costs.”
Nowhere in Bleak House does Dickens report the parties had attempted mediation.
Dickens introduces the reader to the case — Jarndyce and Jarndyce — in the first chapter (the word “and” appears between the names of the parties in English law, not “versus” as in the US):
- “Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, over the course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least; but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant, who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled, has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out.”
In the end, as the reader learns in Chapter 65, the case is decided by a judge in the High Court in London. The narrator happened to be passing by as the final hearing was wrapping up and a crowd had formed outside:
- “We asked a gentleman by us, if he knew what cause was on? He told us Jarndyce and Jarndyce. We asked him if he knew what was doing in it? He said, really no he did not, nobody ever did; but as well as he could make out, it was over. ‘Over for the day?’ we asked him. ‘No,’ he said; ‘over for good.’.... When we heard this unaccountable answer, we looked at one another quite lost in amazement. Could it be possible that the Will had set things right at last, and that Richard and Ada were going to be rich? It seemed too good to be true. Alas, it was!”
Dickens then describes the scene as the papers are removed from the High Court: “We stood aside, watching for any countenance we knew; and presently great bundles of paper began to be carried out — bundles in bags, bundles too large to be got into any bags, immense masses of papers of all shapes and no shapes, which the bearers staggered under, and threw down for the time being, anyhow, on the Hall pavement, while they went back to bring out more.”
It turned out there was nothing left for Richard and Ada, the prevailing parties, as “the whole estate is found to have been absorbed in costs.”
Nowhere in Bleak House does Dickens report the parties had attempted mediation.