Have Questions About Pricing?
Contact our friendly team for a chat about how our pricing works.
Mediation is an opportunity for the parties and their lawyers (if they have them) to meet at Court to talk through and reach their own agreement with the support of a mediator. The mediator will usually help the parties talk to each other, in a respectful and safe environment.
- Once you arrive at Court, your lawyer will accompany you into the conference room. In the conference room you will be seated opposite to the other parties and their lawyers with the mediator positioned at the head of the table.
- Typically, the Plaintiff/Claimant’s lawyer will put forward their case first and then the Defendant’s lawyer will respond accordingly with their case.
- The parties and their lawyers will then enter into negotiations. It is likely that during the negotiations, we will exit the room to discuss the following with you privately:
- A settlement offer to put forward to the other party; or
- A settlement offer that other party may provide to you.
- The mediator will also assist you and the other parties in attempting to reach an agreement to resolve the dispute. If a settlement is reached at the Mediation, the Mediation is then usually adjourned to a later date to allow time for parties to arrange for payment of the settlement sum and prepare and execute consent orders to dismiss the matter.
- If no settlement has been reached and the mediator does not believe that a settlement will be reached, the mediator will usually list the matter to a Listing Conference. Alternatively, the mediation may be adjourned for a further mediation to allow additional time for settlement to be explored.
From our experience, you are more likely to settle the matter whilst attending the mediation in person then attending by telephone. When the parties attend mediation in person they are able to obtain a better understanding and feel for what is happening. However, in appropriate cases, you may be allowed to attend via telephone or video link. Such a request must be made to the Court as soon as possible.
Communications made at the Pre-Trial Conference are ‘Without Prejudice Save as to Costs’ which means that such communications cannot be used in Court against another party until judgment has been entered into and the Court looks at which party will be awarded a specific amount of costs. The purpose of this legal principle is to promote settlement and open negotiations.
Mediation is the best chance that you have to settle the matter prior to it being heard at trial. If you do take your matter to trial you will incur significant costs. Taking the matter to trial also entails significant risk which include (but are not limited to) you losing your case and t an adverse costs order may be made against you for you to pay the legal fees of the successful party. Not to mention that there is considerable time and stress involved in pursuing a Court case to trial.
The person bringing the case to court will typically pay a fixed fee when lodging the mediation request. You can confirm the fee by speaking to your lawyer.
If you would like further advice please don’t hesitate to contact us on 08 6141 1513 to make an appointment.