Before we get into the gist of this blog article, we want to take a step back and quickly walk you through how mediation works in the first place. Parties contact for mediation for two reasons. First, because the court ordered them to seek private mediation. Second, because parties chose to resolve their dispute through mediation voluntarily, which is the best option to choose from, and here is why.

Parties who choose to mediate voluntarily have a higher chance of settlement than parties who are ordered into the process, i.e. by the court. Why is this the case? As you know, litigation and the legal market nowadays is costly and early settlements are rare. This is by no means underestimating the role and importance of lawyers. Rather, this article is intended to show how mediation can be more effective if parties voluntarily agree to use its process prior to filing a lawsuit and/or commencing litigation. Here are the reasons why mediation works and why you should choose it over going through the adversarial process.

1.     Parties have control over the process. In mediation, parties are in control of their own dispute and may formulate their own agreement. For example, in a child custody mediation, parents decide the best visitation time based on their schedule that works for both of them, at the same time preserving the best interest of the child, and formulate a visitation time that is easily manageable without the court’s interference.

2.     Mediation is a friendlier way of resolving disputes, because parties care to preserve their relationships. For example, two friends disagree over a subject and can’t seem to find a common ground. Instead of suing each other, they can preserve their relationship and still resolve their differences with the help of a skilled mediator.

3.     Usually, we have this perception that if anything happens quick, then it might not be well thought through. In mediation, this is not so much the case. Mediation produces a quicker result compared to litigation, and we base this assertion based on statistical research and personal preference. Indeed, people who are educated about the process and know how it works, find it easy to navigate through the process quicker.

In its simplest form, mediation achieves a more favorable outcome and allows the parties to freely navigate their own dispute by mutually searching a common ground.