Legal conflicts are an expensive inevitability for businesses, but it doesn’t have to cost you thousands in legal fees. Many business owners choose mediation, avoiding the time-consuming and costly process of litigation in court. As a business owner, you probably know that legal fees can cost you hundreds of dollars per hour. The sooner you can settle a dispute, with as little legal assistance as possible, the more you save. Mediation can help you do both and still reach a solution you’re satisfied with. Since both parties create the agreement, they are more likely to keep it. This can save you additional money by avoiding future disputes altogether. Here’s how business mediation works.

How Business Mediation Works

Mediators help provide their facilitation, problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills to solve your dispute outside of a courtroom. It takes skill, knowledge and experience to assess the key elements of a conflict. Mediators help analyze facts to filter out irrelevant facts, feelings and hyperbole to arrive at a satisfactory resolution. They can help suggest unique or creative solutions, and provide information about the consequences of any legal decisions made during the mediation. Here are four examples of how business mediation works. These are situations where you should consider mediation before proceeding to litigation:

Contract Disputes

No matter how long or specific, a contract always includes room for uncertainty and ambiguity. Situations may arise that are not considered by the contract. Parties may dispute the definition of a critical word or phrase. Before taking the other party to court to enforce the contract terms, you can bring in a neutral third party to act as a mediator. Remember, a mediator is not an arbitrator – they do not make a decision for the parties. They help the parties reach their own solution, and both must agree to it for it to be binding.

Disputes with Vendors

Resolving conflicts with vendors typically involves coming to an agreement on desired performance, monitoring their work and standards for quality of the results.  This takes time in a courtroom setting. However, an independent, third-party mediator can facilitate the settlement of a dispute without a court-ordered judgement.

Disputes with Employees

Disputes with employees, when ignored, can infect the whole workplace. Eventually these conflicts can taint the reputation and brand of your business. When management are unable to handle the situation in-house, a professional mediator can help. The mediation process is confidential and without prejudice. After listening to both sides and reviewing the facts of the issue, the mediator will then meet with both parties together. Rather than deciding who is right and wrong, the mediator will help both sides come to a conclusion they choose. However, a mediator still expects individuals to work proactively as adults for the process to be successful.

Disputes with your Business Partners

When the problem is with a business partner, it’s important to find a solution acceptable to both parties. With an ongoing relationship where you must continue to interact and collaborate, agreement is essential for your future. You have to maintain a working relationship. A mediator can work with you to reach an agreement and record it in writing. The agreement itself and everything said in mediation remains totally confidential but binding.

Mediation Doesn’t Eliminate Your Legal Rights

Working through mediation doesn’t take away your right to pursue legal action in the future. If of a problem arises in the future or someone does not follow your agreement, you can still go to court. However mediation can save you and your business thousands of dollars by avoiding litigation where it is not necessary. And, since both parties agree to the solution, mediated agreements typically see high rates of compliance by both parties. To learn more about business mediation, give our office a call today: 920-885-5549.

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