Commercial mediation is a process that parties to a dispute can go through, which is a way of making an attempt to resolve the dispute, where an impartial third party is appointed to behave as a facilitator between them to assist them negotiate a settlement dispute. That impartial third party isn’t a judge. They’re not going to make a choice on the evidence or let you know who’s right and who’s wrong and who wins and who loses. They will allow you to see either party’s position and help them come to a settlement.

The process of commercial mediation

It’s a totally voluntary process. You don’t have to attend commercial mediation, and when you find yourself at a mediation, you’ll be able to go away at any time. However it is a superb opportunity to have a commercial dispute case settled without the need for the proceedings to either, if they have already started, proceed and proceed at elevated costs for each parties, or alternatively, have a mediation at an early stage earlier than any litigation has started in an try and avoid these prices beginning or running away from the parties at a really early stage.

So, it’s a form of other dispute resolution, which is an umbrella time period for many strategies of trying to resolve disputes without having to engage in court proceedings, and it is becoming more and more prevalent in businesses’ minds once they’re having a dispute.

Relatively than, «Let’s have a big argument and spending a lot of prices and plenty of time in dealing with the dispute», «How can we get to the top of the dispute in a quicker way and a more value-effective way?» And commercial mediation is a large part of that and a good way of reaching that end goal in a much more value- and time-environment friendly manner.

Do I have to attend commercial mediation?

Mediation is a voluntary process, but there will be adverse value consequences in litigation if a court believes that a party has unreasonably refused to mediate.

So, if one party to a dispute makes a suggestion of mediation, it can be very prudent, unless there’s an extremely good reason why the opposite party does not wish to mediate, and people reasons may be that the opposite party’s case doesn’t have any merit or the worth of the case involved can be such that the costs of mediation, even attending a mediation would be disproportionate to the value of the dispute.

However, that aside, you would have to have a fairly good reason not to, to not mediate. In any other case, a court could make an adverse costs order in opposition to a party who has unreasonably refused to mediate.

So, it is a case really that the court does anticipate the parties always and all levels of a dispute to try to achieve a settlement, not necessarily through mediation solely, but the court does anticipate the parties to attempt to reach a settlement. And mediation, as we have already discussed, is an efficient way of doing that in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Is the end result of commercial mediation legally binding?

The result of mediation could be legally binding in very specific circumstances, and that’s as soon as an agreement recording the position reached at mediation in a legally binding document.

So, it’s recorded in writing and signed by those parties to the dispute. Till that has occurred, the outcome of a mediation will not be legally binding, and it would be open to either party to the mediation to renege on the agreement or not enter into the agreement or seek to attempt to change the agreement for each in the course of the course of the mediation, up until the purpose that it is being recorded in writing and signed by the parties. And therefore, we advise purchasers who are at mediation and have gone through the process of reaching a settlement at mediation to strive their utmost to get that agreement signed on the day of the mediation. And generally, the recording of the agreement can take just as long, if not longer, as to actually the parties reaching the agreement at mediation themselves.