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. With the exception of some disputes involving public interest, mediation is considered to be private and confidential. Pursuant to California's Civil Action Mediation Act and other California laws, all 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. Typically, the parties agree in advance that if they are unable to resolve their dispute using mediation, they will seek arbitration and receive an advisory or binding judgment on all or part of the issues that remain in dispute. In these instances, the mediator will switch roles and, as the arbitrator, provide the judgment. The mediation-arbitration process has advantages over arbitration or mediation alone. There is greater incentive for parties to cooperate in the mediation stage of the process because they know if they are unable to come to an agreement voluntarily, they may have a solution imposed upon them in the arbitration stage.