Mediation won't empty your bank account like litigation can

Litigation and mediation end in the same place: a resolved dispute. The price to get there can be as different as night and day.

Litigation

• Who you pay: your attorney, who bills by the hour, plus court costs

• What drives the cost: every motion, hearing, and round of discovery

• Typical cost: attorney fees and court costs that often reach tens of thousands of dollars, and sometimes much more

• Timeline: months or years, set by the court's calendar; this requires you to take time off work for hearings and appearances during business hours
  

Mediation

• Who you pay: one mediator, with the fee shared between the parties, plus court costs if a case has been filed or your agreement needs a judge's signature on a final order, as in a divorce

• What drives the cost: the time it takes to reach an agreement

• Typical cost: my fees run from $300 to $800 per person, depending on how much time a matter needs. (You still have to pay any applicable court filing fees, and although some people prepare final orders/documents themselves, if you want an attorney to do that, you will also have that cost.)

• Timeline: scheduled when both people are ready and available, often in one or two focused meetings, with the flexibility to meet at a time that works for you, including in the evening or during the weekend
  

And that's only the part that shows up on an invoice. Litigation also carries costs no one bills you for: stress, anxiety, and other emotional and psychological strain, along with the lasting damage an ongoing fight can do to relationships. Court is adversarial by design, built around a winner and a loser, and the process rewards building a case against the other person. Mediation asks both people to work toward something they can live with.

Mediation isn't free, and it isn't a discount version of resolving a dispute. It simply doesn't charge you for the legal machinery of a lawsuit.

Curious whether mediation could help with a situation you’re facing? Contact us to schedule a consultation. Do you have a question you’d like us to cover in a future blog post? Send it my way, or schedule a phone consultation. And if you need an answer to your questions sooner than the next post, don’t wait on the series. Reach out now.