Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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It has long been recognized that one of mediation’s great strengths is that the parties are not limited to the narrow, binary win-lose results available in litigated resolutions.

For this reason, mediators are trained to go beyond positions and to flush out the parties’ underlying interests. We are taught to encourage the parties to explore creative deals that may have little or nothing to do with the dispute being litigated.

A mediated resolution of a commercial dispute might include, for example, settlements of unrelated disputes, adjustments to terms of existing business arrangements or even forging entirely new relationships. All of these possibilities can and should be explored in the right mediation.