Why You Should Turn to Mediation Voluntarily to Resolve Your Dispute

When mediations occur, they are initiated in several ways: completely voluntarily (ie no courts or lawyers involved), as a preliminary to a legal suit (attorneys involved usually) or they are court-ordered or court managed. 

Court mandated and court annexed mediation is found in many jurisdictions including Australia, the UK, Canada, the US and in Singapore and Malaysia. However, many people do not realise that mediation is not just a pesky necessity to get over with in the course of litigation and under appreciate the benefits. For example in Singapore in 2013,  as attendance at mediation was not compulsory a no-show rate of 60% was recorded at community mediation. Subsequently, the Community Dispute Management Framework was introduced whereby grassroots and community leaders were to be the first to assist in resolving conflicts and secondarily when intervention fails, disputing parties may attend mediation at Community Mediation Centres and lastly resort to Community Dispute Resolution Tribunal located within the State Court Building[1].

 The point is, people in conflict do not have to wait for courts or lawyers to be involved as they can turn to mediation voluntarily at any time.

Why Voluntary Mediation?

Taking from the National Conflict Resolution Center materials, listing why people should try mediation, it is because it works since a majority of cases reach an agreement, it is satisfactory as parties control outcome, it is cost effective as it avoids the expense of litigation (even legal counsel if parties prefer), fast as it can usually be scheduled within 7-10 days[2], confidential (except if law requires disclosure), flexible as it can occur before, during or after a case and professional since mediators are highly trained and experience. Depending on location of parties and availability of facilities, it can even be convenient (especially community and online mediation).

Community mediation is well established in Australia, although there is no information whether these come from referred sources or direct applications from community members. Other occasions where voluntary mediation has been successful are in the construction industry and in peer (students) mediation.

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[1] Quek Anderson, D. Twenty One Years of Mediation. How Do We Appraise the Development of Mediation within Singapore? (2015) Asian JM 73

[2] Compared to 2-6 years for cases to be disposed of in the US district courts, and 16 months for FINRA arbitrations. See Mann, VJ. The Mediation Paradox: Collaborative Combat