Parties who use mediation successfully can learn valuable skills to help them address future conflicts more creatively. Mediated cases usually are settled in less time than litigated cases, achieving considerable cost and time savings. Even people who believe they could win a court case sometimes prefer to mediate rather than incur court costs and lawyers' fees, which could swallow a large part of any award received. A significant benefit of mediation is that the litigants maintain confidentiality and control over the terms of settlement as well as the settlement process itself. This can be very important if the parties want to avoid a public airing of their disputes.
Mediation generally is considered to be private and confidential.
Most communications and documents, including work notes made and used during mediation, are confidential and cannot be used in a court of law should there be subsequent litigation. Mediation is used to resolve disputes in a wide variety of settings. Whether the dispute involves students, neighbors, family members, businesses, parties to an accident, governmental agencies, or nations, the mediation process is an effective tool for achieving solutions by mutual agreement rather than by court order. Conciliation Conciliation is an informal process in which an agreed-upon neutral third party is asked to investigate a dispute, usually one involving complex or technical issues. Conciliation is voluntary and private.