Mediation vs Litigation

Mediation is...

Litigation is...

Cost-effective

It is rare for mediation to cost each party more than a few thousand dollars.

Expensive

It is common for litigation to cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and costs.

Efficient

It is rare for two-party mediation to require more than two days, with many requiring less than one full day.

Time-Consuming

The duration of litigation is usually measured in months or years.

Confidential

What happens in mediation, stays in mediation. Statements made in mediation are confidential and inadmissible in court, with very limited exceptions.

Public

What happens in litigation is a matter of public record. Testimony and evidence offered in litigation may be used in subsequent proceedings.

Risk-Free

Parties can terminate mediation at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. Parties retain full control over the outcome and the costs.

Risky

Once litigation begins, it can be very difficult and expensive to stop. Parties relinquish control over the outcome and costs and are subject to the court’s decisions.

Party-Driven

The parties decide what is fair and reasonable and what outcomes they can accept.

Judge-Driven

The judge decides what is fair and reasonable and imposes an outcome on the parties.

Win-Win

The parties work to find win-win solutions that meet all of their interests and maximizes value for all parties.

Zero-Sum

One or both sides will lose. The outcome will be based on the judge’s view of the facts and the law, not on the parties’ interests. What one party wins, the other loses.

Mediation is...

Cost-effective

It is rare for mediation to cost each party more than a few thousand dollars.

Efficient

It is rare for two-party mediation to require more than two days, with many requiring less than one full day.

Confidential

What happens in mediation, stays in mediation. Statements made in mediation are confidential and inadmissible in court, with very limited exceptions.

Risk-Free

Parties can terminate mediation at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. Parties retain full control over the outcome and the costs.

Party-Driven

The parties decide what is fair and reasonable and what outcomes they can accept.

Win-Win

The parties work to find win-win solutions that meet all of their interests and maximizes value for all parties.

Litigation is...

Expensive

It is common for litigation to cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and costs.

Time-Consuming

The duration of litigation is usually measured in months or years.

Public

What happens in litigation is a matter of public record. Testimony and evidence offered in litigation may be used in subsequent proceedings.

Risky

Once litigation begins, it can be very difficult and expensive to stop. Parties relinquish control over the outcome and costs and are subject to the court’s decisions.

Judge-Driven

The judge decides what is fair and reasonable and imposes an outcome on the parties.

Zero-Sum

One or both sides will lose. The outcome will be based on the judge’s view of the facts and the law, not on the parties’ interests. What one party wins, the other loses.

Learn More About:

Mediation

The best solutions meet everyone’s interests. We help you identify and communicate what you really need, so you’ll never compromise on what matters most.

Conflict Coaching

The strongest negotiators do the hardest work before getting to the table. Conflict Coaching helps you clarify your interests, understand your alternatives, and anticipate obstacles, preparing you to be your most effective advocate.

Meeting Facilitation

When your team invests the time and resources to gather, it deserves the best opportunity to experience success together. Meeting Facilitation helps keep teams focused, productive, engaged and united in purpose.

Training

Individual and group conflict coaching and topical seminars for education professionals and students.

“Many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace ‘inner disarmament,’ reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred and hostility toward our brothers and sisters.”

Dalai Lama XIV

“The most tragic cause of social disharmony is when the speed with which people find mistakes of others outweighs their simple belief that they too are infallible!”

Israelmore Ayivor

“Each conflict is self conflict.”

Raphael Zernoff

“The worst battle you’ll have to fight is between what you know and how you feel.”

Turcois Ominek

“During the flames of controversy, opinions, mass disputes, conflict, and world news, sometimes the most precious, refreshing, peaceful words to hear amidst all the chaos are simply and humbly ‘I don’t know.”

Criss Jami

“Asking why you should retaliate often solves the problem better than retaliation itself.”

Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

“We usually learn from debates that we seldom learn from debates.”

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The world is an arena where things represent things. It is a stage where the same thing is seen from different lenses as a different thing.”

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Before reacting to any conflicting situation in life. Ask yourself a simple question: ‘You want to be happy or you want to be right?“

Aditya Ajmera

“Conflict occurs everywhere except in the cemetery. Everyone experiences conflict except the dead. Thankful for being alive…”

Assegid Habtewold

“History is littered with the wars everybody knew could never happen.”

Enoch Powell

“We seldom learn much from someone with whom we agree.”

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We fight because we fail to understand why really we fight.”

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Conflict is not necessarily bad. If you can avoid taking conflict personally, it is actually a way to get better decisions and better results.”

Sonali Sinha

“You can teach people everything except how to get along.”

Marty Rubin

“Real conflicts between two people, those which do not serve to cover up or to project, but which are experienced on the deep level of inner reality to which they belong, are not destructive. They lead to clarification, they produce a catharsis from which both persons emerge with more knowledge and more strength.”

Erich Fromm

“Half of the conflicts in your head get resolved when you seek to understand instead of seeking to be understood.”

Nitya Prakash

“They began to fight, ’cause they didn’t know each other’s stories.“

Jaco Strydom

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”

Yogi Berra

“The source of all the conflicts in the world is in trying to convince everyone that you’re always correct.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo

“People may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

“Discord is harder to end then to begin.”

Edmund Spenser

“Ten per cent of conflict is due to difference of opinion. Ninety per cent is due to wrong tone of voice.”

Ritu Ghatourey

“It is a fact that the bitterest contradictions and the deadliest conflicts of the world are carried on in every individual breast capable of feeling and passion.”

Joseph Conrad

“In some ways, we will always be different. In other ways, we will always be the same. There is always room to disagree and blame, just as there is always room to take a new perspective and empathize. Understanding is a choice“

Vironika Tugaleva

“Perhaps one day, all these conflicts will end, and it won’t be because of great statesmen or churches or organizations like this one. It’ll be because people have changed.“

Kazuo Ishiguro

“What would you have? Your gentleness shall force More than your force move us to gentleness.“

William Shakespeare

“Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.“