Business disputes are going to happen. Maybe you’ll get in a dispute with your business partner. Perhaps you are a contractor who hires subcontractors, and disputes could arise with one of them. You could also have a dispute with a different business owner, perhaps because you believe they failed to honor their side of a contract.
In many cases, you can get things sorted out. Business owners can find solutions on their own. But when they can’t, they may be looking for alternatives. Going to court is sometimes an option, but you may find that mediation actually has some advantages over a court case. Let’s look at just a few of them below.
It is confidential
First of all, perhaps you don’t want the information to get out to the public because it is sensitive information for your business. If you go to trial, that all becomes a public record. If you use mediation, however, it is confidential and so you know that the general public doesn’t have access to all of those records.
It is often faster
In many cases, you’ll find that mediation is faster, and this can make it less expensive. Court cases just take a long time because you have to schedule them with the court itself, there can be delays and the whole process may drag on for longer than you want. Mediation still does take time, but it may be faster, reducing the costs that you face during the case and helping you focus on your business again sooner.
You have more control
Finally, mediation gives you and the other individual more control over the outcome of your case. You don’t have to wait for a judge to make a ruling and then simply hope that it works for you. You may have to compromise and give some things up, but you do get to have more say in what happens.
These are not all of the reasons to use mediation, but they can help you see why it’s so important to look up into all of your options during a dispute.