Something awful has happened and your business is under threat. You can’t sleep at night. Your family see your stress. You know you have to fight to protect them, yourself and your life’s work. But how?
It seems the problem you face is straightforward, so why can’t your adversary see your point of view?
You feel as though someone in authority should listen to what is happening. That they should see the blindingly obvious common-sense solution you know would fix matters. But who? And how?
You have resorted to writing to your adversary to ask them to stop whatever it is they are doing. But still they continue.
You have pointed out that they are putting your business in a dire situation and there will be consequences for them unless they stop and repair the damage. But they pay no heed.
You have threatened them with legal action. Yet still they carry on, destroying the value you painstakingly created. There is precious little time left before the damage is irreversible.
Why won’t they sit up and listen to you? What do you have to do to make them?
There is an obvious answer. Mediation. Yet few people know this.
How mediation works
In mediation, you choose to take a person of integrity, experience and knowledge into your confidence and ask them to act in the same way with the other side.
You don’t want the mediator to decide but you do want them to help your adversary understand the imperatives and the damage they are doing. Because you want to rectify matters before it is too late, you are prepared to listen to the other side and better understand how you got into this mess.
A skilled and experienced mediator will engage with you and your adversary as a neutral. They have the simple objective of finding a way for you, as opposing parties, to sort out your problem and cement a voluntarily agreed solution with a binding agreement.
So what’s holding you back? What have you got to lose? Should you just go straight to court instead?
Mediation versus litigation
There are few if any benefits to going to court – even if you win, at what cost? Conversely, mediation has several long-term benefits: you maintain control, progress at speed and limit your costs. Crucially, you protect your reputation and may even maintain a relationship with the other side.
Mediation is quick. It takes weeks or months while going to court can take many months or even years.
Mediation costs are fixed, clear and reasonable, and shared with the other side equally. In court, if you lose, you may have to pay the court fees and the other party’s costs as well.
Overall, the costs of litigation are significant, win or lose.
And to spend that kind of money you also have to squander loads of valuable time.
You have to engage lawyers who will laboriously collect evidence to get ready to go to court and prove your case. This is more than just time consuming as it could involve key members of your team taking their eyes off the ball.
In mediation you don’t need to prove a legal case; you simply need to assert a compelling one.
Finally, to get a mediator you don’t have to have a solicitor first.
There are a number of excellent mediation services – just give one of them a call.
Or better still, ask us at Moot to help.
#TheMootRoute
