As reaching a final judgement via adjudication in a court of law can take many years, alternative methods of dispute resolution have been introduced but a not employed frequently enough.
Around the world, court case-loads are steadily rising, which also increases the time litigants must spend waiting for a final judgement. As a result, some people are opting for alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as mediation, whereby an independent party assists the disputants.
The advantages
Mediation has many advantages when compared to adjudication. First, mediation is much less expensive than the costs of going to court. Taking a case to court entails legal fees, filing fees, and other court costs, none of which are necessary for mediation. In addition, the mediator attempts to find common ground between the disputants, which can open the door to restoring good relations between the parties. Unlike in court cases, there is no clear winner or loser in mediation. This can lead to greater acceptance of the decision, something that is especially important if the relationship between the parties must go forward after the dispute at hand. And the advantages of mediation are even more prevalent when two nation-states have a dispute. In those cases, mediation is often an excellent alternative to lengthy adjudication before an international court or resorting to armed conflict.
The challenge
Although dispute resolution via mediation has many attractive features, too many disputants opt for traditional adjudication, which is contributing to the massive backlog of cases in court systems around the world. So the challenge now is to get more people to choose mediation by making them aware of the enormous benefits of this alternative form of dispute resolution.
.png)
