About Mediation

     Mediation is a potent process that bridges the gap between negotiation and litigation.  In Mediation, a third party facilitates negotiation between the parties and breaks impasse by reducing emotion, increasing rationality, building desire for resolution, helping come up with creative solutions, and providing a confidential channel for communicating real goals and deal points in a way that does not compromise leverage.  A web search on mediation statistics indicates success rates that seem to hover around 85 percent, and reveals that mandatory mediation is only 10 percent less effective than that. It is astounding that even where parties do not want to mediate, the process brings them to their own voluntary resolution 75 percent of the time.

Simply put, Mediation is “negotiation on steroids.” Mediation offers the benefit of negotiation in that the parties control the final outcome and nothing is imposed on them against their will, and yet it has the impasse-breaking power of litigation at a fraction of the cost. In mediation, the mediator does not render a decision. The parties come to resolution voluntarily. Mediation is low cost when compared to litigation, efficient, low risk, and the outcome is the control of the parties involved. 
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Arnie Herz is a highly regarded mediator, business lawyer and public speaker with offices on Wall Street and in Port Washington, N.Y. He is the author of the popular blog Legal Sanity and can be reached at [email protected].