Overview

Mediation is a process where a trained person assists two or more people who are in dispute, to negotiate a mutually satisfactory resolution to their dispute. lt is a form of "assisted" or "facilitated" negotiation.

Before mediation, parties, through their lawyers, may have attempted settlement of their dispute, but without success for many reasons. Mediation offers the parties and the lawyers a safe and secure environment in which to take the negotiations to the next level by introducing a third neutral person (the mediator, sometimes also called the chair).

The mediator facilitates discussions to explore the issues and concerns of the parties and help them to identify and explore options to resolve their dispute.

The mediator's roles include controlling the mediation process, facilitating discussion and generally assisting the parties to reach an acceptable agreement.

lt is not the mediator's role to act as a legal advisor and it is not the role of the mediator to act as a Judge and to impose outcomes upon parties.

However, it is appreciated that in some cases and at some stages in mediations, parties and/or their legal representatives may feel that, given the experience of the mediator in the law, it may be of assistance in the negotiating process for him or her to express some views or opinions about the merits of some of the competing proposals and propositions in the context of considering what might be the outcome should the matter proceed to trial in a court.

The views expressed should not be received as legal advice. Any views expressed by the mediator are necessarily based on limited information and are always to be subject to the legal advice the parties have available to them at the mediation or elsewhere.

It is at the discretion of the mediator as to whether the mediator provides any views or not.

Further information about the process can be found by using the mediation link in the main menu.