| If you've given up on negotiating a settlement of your | | | | relationships, so a huge advantage of mediation is its |
| dispute directly with the other party, mediation may be | | | | ability to get a dispute resolved without destroying a |
| the most painless and efficient way to solve it. | | | | relationship. |
| Mediation is quick, private, fair, and inexpensive | | | | Another advantage of mediation is confidentiality. With |
| compared to a lawsuit. Mediation sessions are usually | | | | very few exceptions (for example, where a criminal |
| scheduled within a few weeks or, at most, a couple of | | | | act or child abuse is involved), what you say during |
| months from the time of a request -- and most | | | | mediation cannot legally be revealed outside the |
| sessions last only a few hours or a day, depending on | | | | mediation proceedings or used later in a court of law. |
| the type of case. In contrast, lawsuits often take many | | | | By contrast, one of the drawbacks of going to court is |
| months, or even years, to resolve. | | | | that, by and large, everything said or submitted in |
| Mediation is particularly valuable when your dispute | | | | connection with a lawsuit becomes available to the |
| involves another person with whom -- either by choice | | | | public. Only by a special order of a judge can |
| or circumstance -- you need to remain on good terms. | | | | information be "sealed" from public exposure. So |
| This may include family members, co-workers, | | | | whether your desire is to protect your trade secrets |
| business partners, your landlord, neighbors, or others | | | | or just to avoid airing your dirty laundry in public, your |
| with whom you have a continuing personal or business | | | | privacy will be substantially greater with mediation than |
| relationship. Lawsuits polarize and ultimately ruin | | | | with litigation. |