MEDIATION ANSWERS

Initial  Meeting (by phone or in person) – NO CHARGE. $290 per hour (prepaid, split between parties unless otherwise agreed) plus any agreed upon expenses e.g. room rentals. Minimum 3 hours (Including 1-hour review and preparation time). Additional hours billed as above, upon agreement of the parties)  

Many jurisdictions across North America have made it a mandatory step to use Mediation in an attempt to resolve disputes/conflicts before the Court will hear a matter.

This applies to Business, Family, Workplace, and any other areas where disputes/conflicts, of any kind, can arise.

Mandatory Mediation is now being put into contract language in many relationships in an effort to quickly, and cost effectively, resolve issues.

It is not mandatory everywhere.

Mediation is defined as “a voluntary process where a neutral third party facilitates discussion between two or more participants, in an effort to assist the participants in reaching a mutually acceptable outcome”

Mediators do not decide outcomes – full ownership of the decision-making process belongs to the participants.

Simply put, Mediation Works because as the chosen process, it shows that the participants are already motivated to reach an agreement in the quickest, most cost-effective way possible.

I know this is not always the case in Mandatory Mediations, but a competent Mediator can help get the parties together.

Mediators are not Judges – we do not decide the outcome – you do.

Disputes / Conflicts that cannot be resolved by the participants themselves usually end up in an adversarial process, where the end result will produce a “winner” and a “loser”.

For most of the past century, that process was litigation, and that third party was a Judge.

The Judge would hear each participant, and hand down a decision in favour of one or the other – there was no further discussion, and none of the participants had any input into the final decision.

The “loser” was always unhappy with the outcome.

As processes such as litigation became more expensive and time consuming, it was clear that there was a need for different, and more user friendly, approaches.

These approaches have become known as Alternative Dispute Resolution processes, and the most popular, and user friendly, is Mediation.

Mediation, unlike litigation or arbitration, has no “loser” – either an agreement is reached by all involved, or the Mediation is called off, and no participant is any worse off than they were before.

Choosing Mediation means that the participants are 100% responsible for reaching an agreement.

If the Mediator can help do that, they have done their job – if not, you simply continue on with the previous process, be it litigation or other.

Mediators come from all walks of life.

Whether they have a background as a business person, a lawyer or a professional in other fields, they all have one thing in common – an interest in helping conflicting parties resolve their differences.

The majority of Mediators go through extensive & continuous training – a true Mediator is not limited to one area of practice, although many Mediators specialize in one area.

It is important to understand that a Mediator DOES NOT provide legal advice, even if they are a lawyer by trade.

However, a good Mediator does draw from their own knowledge in an effort to be of assistance to you in coming to an agreement.

Remember, a Mediator is trained to add value to the negotiating process, and is NOT your legal, financial, or business representative.

A Mediator has only one function – to assist parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement.

Once an agreement has been reached, or it is determined that it cannot be reached and other actions are to be considered, the involvement of the Mediator is complete.