Differences Between Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation

Irvine civil litigation attorneys at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can provide you with assistance determining the best response to a lawsuit against your organization or the best response to a conflict that necessitates your company pursue a claim to protect its rights. Businesses become involved in many different kinds of disputes, with potential conflicts including problems between suppliers and the business; issues between co-owners or shareholders; and conflicts with customers. Different types of disputes can necessitate a different approach to resolving the conflict. 

Three common methods of resolving disputes that you may wish to consider include mediation, arbitration, and litigation. Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can help you to assess all of your options for resolving a disagreement or claim that arises and can help you no matter which approach you select. You should give us a call today to find out about the ways in which our firm can help you.

Differences Between Mediation, Arbitration, and Litigation

Mediation, arbitration, and litigation are all methods of resolving conflict but they work very differently. Here are some of the key differences that you need to know about when evaluating whether each of these methods of dispute resolution can work for you.

• Mediation requires the parties to come to consensus but arbitration and litigation don’t. When you mediate a dispute, the process is voluntary and an agreement on resolving the conflict is reached only when the parties come to an agreement. A mediator helps to facilitate the discussion that makes agreement possible. With arbitration or litigation, an arbitrator or a judge decide and the parties have to live with the outcome even if neither is that happy with it.
• Judges in litigation have more power and authority: Judges generally have authority to do things that mediators and arbitrators do not do. For example, mediators cannot issue binding decisions and cannot subpoena information as judges can.  This means if both parties to the disagreement are not willing to cooperate with the mediation process, it is usually not going to be effective.
• Mediation is typically voluntary: When people or companies involved in a disagreement decide to mediate the conflict, all of those involved in the dispute need to agree to try to resolve it through mediation.  Arbitration, on the other hand, may not be voluntary. If the parties to a conflict signed an arbitration agreement, they will not have a choice but to resolve the dispute in arbitration. Arbitration agreements are typically binding and enforceable, so even if one of the parties to the conflict wants to sue, that person will not be able to do so if there is a valid arbitration agreement in place.  If a person or company is sued, they also have to respond because simply ignoring the lawsuit could result in a default judgement.

These are a few of the key differences between mediation, arbitration, and litigation. There may also be other key differences as well. For example, an arbitrator can be chosen that has industry-specific knowledge to help resolve disputes, whereas this is not the case with a judge. Mediation and arbitration can both also allow a dispute to be resolved more privately than court proceedings, while mediation is generally less acrimonious than litigation so can help to preserve relationships between disputing parties.

Because there are so many important differences between the different approaches to resolving issues, talking with Irvine civil litigation attorneys to find the best approach is very important for businesses and individuals involved in a conflict.

Getting Help from Irvine Civil Litigation Attorneys

Irvine civil litigation attorneys at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP will work closely with you to decide which method of dispute resolution is best for your organization’s long-term and short-term goals. We can also help you to resolve your claim through any of these methods of addressing conflict. You should give us a call at (866)237-8129 or contact us online to find out more about the ways in which our compassionate and knowledgeable legal team can help your business to resolve issues while protecting your company’s future.