Mediation is basically a settlement conference between the parties that is supervised by a neutral specialist who is there to facilitate agreement. Prior to such encounters, about 95% of participants believe that mediation will be an utter waste of time because they reason that if talking could have resolved the dispute, no one would have filed a court case. Yet, 71% of participants resolve some or all of their disputes in just a few hours using mediation.
Mediation typically works because, at some level, even the most bitterly-divided partners want to talk and work things out between themselves, rather than going to court and risking the unknown. What are the benefits of mediation, and how does it work?
Mediation’s Three “Cs”
Divorce and family law costs vary significantly and are difficult to quantify, but the Justice Department has compiled some statistics about mediation. Typically, this process occurs after discovery is completed and before trial. So, according to the government, mediation saves an average of over $14 million in litigation expenses each year, in addition to over 2,100 months of litigation time and 20,000 days of attorney and staff time. If financial resources are an issue, and they nearly always are, mediation is often worth a look.
As mentioned earlier, mediation also gives the parties more control over the outcome because instead of handing the matter over to a judge, the parties determine who gets to keep the children, who keeps the house, and so on. There is considerable
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