WHEN MEDIATION WORKS

If you are interesting in mediating a dispute, here are some quick pointers that will help you.

1) Mediation is a strictly voluntary process. The mediator’s role is to facilitate settlement not to make any decisions for the parties.

2) The mediator must be neutral and independent of the parties and does not act for any of them.

3)  The chances for success rise to at least 50% when each of the parties is motivated to settle and not to blame others for the dispute. Where one or more parties are still playing the ‘blame game’ mediation cannot work. The mediator can be effective only when the parties are seeking a practical way out of their conflict.

4) It is helpful to the parties if the mediator is familiar with the subject matter of the dispute.

5) Mediations are generally booked on a half day or full basis. And those bookings reflect the number of issues and their complexity.

6) Because mediation is an out of court process, any discussions  are strictly confidential and may not be repeated in a court of law should the parties later end up in court.