Mediation has gained popularity because courts have failed to provide inexpensive and timely outcomes for disputing parties.
Mediation can be convened quickly, is less expensive (often vastly so), and enables parties to move on with their lives without undue delay.
Success at Mediation is greatly assisted by proper disclosure and transparent dealings. A spirit of compromise - including willingness to listen to the other party's views and acknowledgment that court outcomes are discretionary and usually encompass a range of possible outcomes- improves prospects of resolution.
Some time ago we undertook a mediation intake for a party who chose not to proceed with the mediation but rather to embark on litigation, confident in his solicitor's advice that a particular favourable outcome would be achieved.
Later, on returning to mediation on a peripheral issue, the same party expressed considerable lament that he had not continued to mediate in the first instance. After he and the other party had each spent approximately $150,000, he had been told by the same solicitor 'at the door of the court' that, "Today is the day we compromise our position to try to achieve a settlement".
Whilst the solicitor was no doubt confident in his original advice, the client would have been better served by exploring a range of possible outcomes at mediation and compromising to achieve an outcome both parties could accept. They could then have moved on emotionally earlier and the money spent on litigation would have been available to fund the more wholesome needs of themselves and their children.
Hindsight is such a wonderful thing!
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