What are the principal differences between mediation, and arbitration or litigation?
With mediation, the neutral third party encourages all the parties involved to consider, not their legal rights, but their commercial interests, and aims to get them to agree to a compromise that will give both sides something. If the negotiations are successful and all parties agree to observe the outcome, their signature to the agreement makes it legally binding. If the negotiations are not successful, or are only partially successful, the parties can still take the outstanding issues to arbitration or litigation, if they wish. With arbitration or litigation, all the parties involved are bound by the decision reached by the arbitrator or judge, after he (or she) has considered the submissions and the evidence.
