Mediation Dramatically Reduces the Time, Cost, Disruption, Adverse Publicity, Relationship Loss, and Lack of Control Typical of Litigation.
Time:
Seasoned litigators know that nearly all cases eventually settle. The trouble is that it might take years for a pending case to settle, often just before, during or after trial, during the pendency of an appeal, or even during the post-judgment enforcement phase. Years may pass without satisfaction to either party.
Cost:
In litigation, substantial billing amounts are unpredictable and frequently incurred. In addition to legal fees, are costs of experts, document reproduction, and the indirect costs of parties and witnesses leaving work to attend depositions, hearings or interviews with counsel.
Disruption:
Litigation causes disruption for the parties who must assist in discovery, attend depositions and prepare for trial. Knowledge of an impending dispute creates a sometimes overwhelming feeling of lack of resolution, emotional termoil, and aggrevation which can be unsettling to individual parties and disruptive in the home and workplace.
Adverse Publicity:
Matters litigated in court often find a second courtroom in the press. Information disclosed in court is open to the public forever. And public right-to-know regulations make orders sealing the record more difficult to obtain.
Relationship Loss:
Litigation enhances adverse postures. No one likes getting sued; and people rarely end up liking the party they sue. Once the die is cast, the parties' counsel strive to gather facts designed to show the strengths of their side and the weaknesses of the other. This is never a formula for mending fences.
Lack of Control:
Judges applying set rules, determine the outcome of cases. This determination might not consider all factors the parties to the litigation value most, and conversely, might be driven by systematic concerns of no direct importance to the parties. Moreover, the relief the parties most desire -- to be understood, to strengthen a relationship's foundation before starting over, to do what's best for the children, to be forgiven, to create a structured settlement -- might not be available in court.
Speedy Resolutions:
Many matters that would be pending for years have been resolved in mediations lasting a limited number of appointments and in a time period as short as one month.
Less Expense and Disruption:
The mediation fee, which can be split by all parties, is a small fraction of the cost of litigation fees incurred over the life of an average case.
Tailored Resolutions:
Mediation permits parties to fashion remedies designed to fit the unique needs, values and circumstances of the parties, permitting "win/win" solutions. A variey of resolutions are available in mediation that parties may not obtain from judgments after trial.
Confidentiality:
Mediation lets parties keep sensitive matters confined to the bargaining table. Plus, the confidentiality of the process, itself, encourages the parties to explore the contours of their dispute, their strengths and weaknesses, their interests and their options for resolving the dispute -- with a candor and depth -- that could never emerge in a court context.
Enhanced Communications:
With the guidance of a professional in dispute resolution, modelling active listening skills, parties are encouraged to communicate in more effective ways. This diffuses tensions and misunderstanding that typically impede negotiations; and, in permitting freer, clearer expression, helps parties find satisfaction in being heard. Communications skills and insights learned through the mediation process last well beyond the resolution of a single dispute.
Mediation is a speedier, less expensive route to tailored resolutions, through a confidential process designed to enhance communications and improve relationships.