Summary

Third-party assistance and support to help parties in a dispute to reach a mutually acceptable settlement is recognised in many types of disputes: family and labour disputes, but increasingly also in commercial disputes. Modern court reforms encourage and sometimes require mediation; often, evidence of satisfactory collaboration in court-ordered mediation has a bearing on the decision on the costs of subsequent litigation. In several legal systems, there is now a positive, enforceable duty to make best efforts in mediation. All statistics point to a significant and ...