Commercial Mediation
Mediation can be a good choice for small businesses, partnerships, family businesses, suppliers and customers, and neighboring businesses who find themselves embroiled in a dispute. The matter may not be suited for the typical legal process. Parties may wish to avoid public airing their differences in court. They may not want to engage in an all-out legal battle if they intend to do business with the other party in the future, or may simply wish to maintain their reputation within a business community. Mediation offers a practical, cost-effective, and private strategy for resolving these commercial disputes.
More and more, businesses are recognizing the value of mediating disputes before looking to other processes. Dispute resolution clauses in contracts often require it as a precursor to litigation or arbitration.
Mediation can also be an effective first step in a larger process, narrowing issues that will eventually be litigated or arbitrated. Mediation can tease apart the individual issues in a dispute, focusing them and allowing resolution of at least some of them. Any issues left unresolved can then be more efficiently, and less expensively, handled in a streamlined litigation or arbitration process.