THE ROAD TO MEDIATION

“An ounce of mediation is worth a pound of arbitration and a ton of litigation.”^[1]                                                                                     

By providing a successful substitute for conventional litigation, mediation considerably lessens the workload on courts by lowering the number of cases that need to be heard by judges. Mediation reduces the amount of time it takes to settle disagreements and clears the backlog of cases by settling conflicts outside of court. Courts can concentrate their resources on more complicated or contentious cases that call for formal adjudication because of this decrease in the caseload. Furthermore, the generally shorter and less expensive mediation procedure not only leads to quicker results but also lowers the total cost of litigation, which lessens the burden on the court’s resources.

Through mediation, the parties are able to re-evaluate their rights and shared interests and develop fresh approaches to conflict resolution. As a result, among arbitration, conciliation, and negotiation, mediation has emerged as the most popular alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process. Mediation is seen as a legitimate means of resolving disputes. It is currently used in many different contexts, such as individual disagreements, employer-employee disputes, and family circumstances like divorce and custody issues. Global mediation also takes place, involving intervention in disputes between nations and in nations where the ruling class is at odds with its citizens. Mediation has been known to positively and permanently alter people, and in the process, its relationships. The purpose of this research is to examine mediation’s function in the legal system as a successful and practical form of dispute resolution. The primary goals of the study are to determine how integrated mediation affects District Court proceedings and to introduce mediators as impartial third parties who aid in settlement negotiations. Additionally, this study intends to investigate potential difficulties and obstacles in putting mediation into practice in a cutthroat setting.