Mediation
Increasingly, disputes are being resolved wholly online.
Disagreement and disputation are unavoidable for us all. We have to deal with them every day, sometimes without help and sometimes with expert assistance. Mediation is a form of structured negotiation in which people who disagree (let us call them the “disputants”) are helped by someone neutral and impartial (preferably trained in mediation and negotiation skills) to find agreement after all.
Because most mediations are voluntary, the disputants may keep the process private and confidential and may use whatever method of communication suits them best. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, mediations were most frequently conducted face to face. Nowadays virtual meetings can replicate the immediacy of face to face, while saving travel and accommodation costs and carbon emissions. Using the Zoom platform, Alan usually starts by meeting all the disputants together with their lawyers (if they are legally represented) and later meets privately with each side, on the basis that nothing communicated in a private session may be revealed to the other side without permission. The mediator may thus get to see room for agreement where none was previously apparent, and help the disputants to get there.