What Is Mediation All About? Why Bother?

• Author: JOHN HOLLANDER
• Pages: 1-4

what is mediation all about? why bother?

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introduction

What Is Mediation All About?

Why Bother?

   that the case they are working

on is about them. ey win; they lose. ey knock them-

selves out against some dreadful witness or a dicult

judge. ey triumph on some arcane point. ey tell war

stories that grow with every retelling.

e fact is that most cases are about the clients, not

the lawyers. It is the client who wins or loses; lawyers are

simply retained to provide professional services. ey are

just professional service providers.

Clients who want to take their disputes all the way

to court are few and far between. e overwhelming ma-

jority of civil cases settle before trial. As far as most cli-

ents are concerned, the earlier that cases settle, the better.

However, early settlement requires negotiation, and lack

of negotiation skills and opportunities may prolong dis-

putes beyond their “best-before date.”

In , mediation became mandatory for civil pro-

ceedings commenced in Ottawa, as discussed in Justice

Beaudoin’s piece. is caused quite a stir at the time. Be-

fore then, mediation rarely occurred in civil court cases in

Ontario. ere was no culture to support the practice in