MEDIATION AND ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

• Mediation is an informal process where an independent, neutral third party, the mediator facilitates conflict resolution. Mediation gives the parties the opportunity to share their issues, clear up misunderstandings, and find areas of agreement in a way that would never be possible in a lawsuit. 

Advantages over traditional lawsuits:

• Less Expensive: Mediation is vastly less expensive than a typical lawsuit. 
• Quicker: When parties want to get on with their lives, mediation allows a more reasonable timetable for resolving a dispute.
• Confidential: Unlike court cases, which are public, mediation is typically confidential, which means there are no records.
• Less Formal: The informality of mediation allows the parties to be more engaged than they would be in a court-driven process. 
•  Greater Flexibility and Control: In mediation, unlike in a lawsuit, the parties are in control because they decide the outcome.
• Preserves Relationships: One of the most overlooked benefits of mediation is that it can help preserve relationships, business and personal, that would likely be destroyed through years of litigation.
• Better Results: For all the reasons above, parties generally report a better outcome as a result of mediation than they do from a lawsuit since the results are not imposed.