What are the Parties' Roles in Mediation?

The parties should prepare for mediation including giving consideration to their own complaints and arguments, and those of other parties in the dispute.

Prior to mediation, each party should carefully consider what is profoundly important to them and how the issues in dispute are otherwise relevant to them. This may involve consideration of a parties’ underlying values, commercial and business interests, financial interests, and outcomes if mediation is unsuccessful. Each party should also very carefully consider the implications of not reaching resolution at mediation.

To benefit from mediation, participants should bear in mind the following principles about their respective roles at mediation:

• Decision-makers must be present at mediation or, much less preferably, reachable during mediation
• Honest and respectful participation should be the standard for communication during mediation
• Each person should listen carefully and try to understand the perspectives of others on each issue, although not necessarily agreeing with every other perspective
• Participants should strive to be open to innovative ideas and consider creative approaches that might serve to assist getting to resolution
• Each party should understand if there will be another opportunity for settlement aside from mediation, and when and how another opportunity may or may not arise prior to the hearing or trial
• The parties should carefully consider all future costs to incur and who will bear those costs should mediation not result in resolution.