In my experience, confidentiality is one of the most undervalued but important advantages of #mediation over #litigation. Confidentiality (and being without prejudice) protects parties from jeopardising any future court claim. This liberates all involved to explore and negotiate terms that they might otherwise refuse to entertain, or at least refuse to reveal to the other party. This is critical to the open and collaborative dynamic that helps make mediation so effective for #disputeresolution. I've seen commercial disputes that concern important contracts or operating practices. It's obvious why parties might want to keep such details private, but court proceedings are public domain. Parties can also offer agreements in mediation that they could not afford to offer in #litigation because of the threat of opening the floodgates to copycat claims. It's not hard to imagine why individuals prefer to keep their disputes and the details surrounding them confidential too. "The Streisand effect” was termed to describe effect of achieving the outcome that one sought to prevent. It was based on a court case brought by the famous singer to protect her privacy. But, being a court case it was, of course, public information so ended up creating a huge amount of media attention.
The defendant in the case had no interest in this attention, and it seems likely that #mediation could have found a settlement that protected Streisand's privacy and been preferential for both parties. #civilmediation #commercialmediation
