What to Expect When Your Case Goes to Mediation

If you are in the middle of a business law litigation case, at some point your attorney may tell you that you’re headed to mediation.

Mediation is a process where all parties to the lawsuit with their lawyers will meet together (although some mediations nowadays are done remotely through Zoom) along with a mediator. The mediator makes no decisions, but is there to try to encourage the parties to come to a middle ground so that the case can be settled.

Is it Required?

You usually will not have the option to mediate, because it is often required (1) under the terms of a contract or agreement you signed requiring mediation or (2) the court is requiring and ordering the parties to go to mediation. If none of these are the case, any party who wants to mediate can always ask the judge to mediate.

What to Expect

But what can you expect at mediation? What’s it like?

Assuming you are doing it in person (not remotely), usually mediation will start with all parties to the lawsuit sitting together in a conference room with their attorneys and the mediator.

The parties will take turns telling their side of the story. They will explain their interpretations of the law, what evidence they intend to present if the case went to court, and sometimes, a rather harsh critique of their opponent’s side of the story. Usually, the lawyers and mediator will do all the talking — you as the client need not say anything (yet) but you are certainly allowed to do so.

Breaking Apart

At some point, the mediator will break all the parties into separate rooms. The mediator will go from room to room, getting more details about each party’s side, and conveying that information to the other side. The mediator will pressure parties to make or to accept reasonable offers to settle the case.

The mediator is not criticizing you or your side of the case — but the mediator is there to bring parties “down to earth,” in the event that they may have unrealistic expectations or beliefs about the strengths of their respective cases. Some mediators have a more delicate hand, while others may be more direct in telling you why your case isn’t as strong as you think it is.

Private Communications

The mediator only conveys to the other side the information that you want to be conveyed; you have a right to keep anything you tell the mediator, private. And any information shared in mediation, whether the case resolves or not, is also absolutely private.

If the case resolves at mediation, the parties will draft up a settlement agreement, and assuming it is agreed on, the case will resolve on those terms. If there is no settlement, the parties can always settle later on, but the case will continue to trial if no settlement is ever reached.

We can help you from start to finish in your commercial litigation case. Call our West Palm Beach commercial litigation attorneys at Pike & Lustig to help you.

Source:

pon.harvard.edu/daily/mediation/mandated-mediation-what-to-expect/