Guided Analysis

The second stage in the IE process is the Evaluation day. Evaluations take place at IE premises in the heart of legal London, just off Chancery Lane, or at one of our regional venues in Manchester or Leeds.

The Evaluation day has three stages: Guided Analysis, Evaluation and Facilitation, and Resolution of Costs. Here we deal with Stage 1, the process of guided forensic analysis.

Stage 1: Guided forensic analysis

In this first stage the Evaluator conducts a guided analysis of the case.

Ahead of the Evaluation day, your Evaluator will have forensically analysed the documentation submitted by the parties during the Directions phase.

The Evaluation day usually starts with a plenary session attended by all parties, in which your Evaluator gives an overview of the case and the key issues involved.

This is followed by a private session with each party, in which the parties put their respective positions to the Evaluator. There is no cross examination, but the Evaluator undertakes a guided forensic analysis of the parties’ positions, inviting them to consider how they would deal with particular issues if the case were to go to trial, as a means of highlighting any potential difficulties in their case. The process often elicits answers such as “I didn’t know I would have to deal with that point in such detail”.

This stage often brings each party to their own realisations about their case, by giving them a greater insight and understanding of their position than they have ever had before. In some instances, this is the first time each party will have heard an accurate assessment of their case.

The next stage – Evaluation and Facilitation

When the time is right, usually late morning, the Evaluator proceeds to the second stage, which is the process of Evaluation and Facilitation.