There are many times when people attempt to negotiate and are met with a stone wall by the other party, as they do not think they have to respond to idle threats. However, once a lawyer is engaged, the stone wall may be gradually removed, and the parties can be assisted to reach a voluntary resolution of the matter without litigation.
Hutchinson Legal has negotiated and participated in mediation in a wide variety of matters which have been successfully resolved to the satisfaction of our clients. Our skilled team take a pragmatic and commercial approach to the resolution of disputes by negotiation principally to save our clients the much higher costs of having a matter determined by a court.
Arbitration and mediation are similar in that they are alternatives to traditional litigation, and sometimes they are used in conjunction with litigation. Both arbitration and mediation employ a neutral third party to oversee the process, and they both can be binding. However, it is common to employ mediation as a non-binding process and arbitration as a binding process. In simpler terms, binding arbitration replaces the trial process with the arbitration process.
Arbitrators take on a role like that of a judge, make decisions about evidence and give written opinions (which can be binding or non-binding).
Mediation, on the other hand, is generally conducted with a single mediator who does not judge the case but simply helps to facilitate discussion and eventual resolution of the dispute.
