Mediation Success?

We in Core along with other advocates of mediation regularly commend the high success rate in mediation. Most providers around the world will report that approaching 80% of mediations produce a successful outcome. By that we mean that a final resolution has been achieved by the end of the process, usually over a day or perhaps two, and usually reflected in a written agreement.

In many ways, that is a remarkable achievement. Of course, many of those who participate in mediation do so because they wish to solve a problem, to achieve a result. However, they come to mediation because conventional means of resolving disputes have not worked or are stuck. These are usually very difficult matters. And yet they resolve. The process works.

But there is a danger if we focus on mediation only as a process which so frequently achieves a final resolution: namely, that we overlook that mediation is also an effective way to help parties to narrow issues, to really understand where others are coming from, to conduct a rigorous risk analysis with the help of an independent and skilled facilitator and to refine the scope of any outstanding issues which are unresolvable by negotiation.

in a recent mediation involving multi-million pound claims, parties were able to test and challenge each other’s position on complex and novel legal issues, address the viability of and commitment to continued litigation on key points, discover the strength of legal advice on each side and the range of settlement options, eliminate weak arguments and examine a variety of approaches to quantification, while retaining amicable and respectful relations throughout. Aspects of the matter may go on to court but with a greater understanding of the real issues and of the value of a court decision, while retaining the option of renewed negotiation at any stage.

This example shows that mediation, used creatively, offers a wider range of opportunities than we often contemplate.