I am a Professional Mediator and obviously want to encourage people to use mediation to help resolve disputes. However I will try to be objective. Please post your comments below if you think I have failed! Firstly you may want to look at my mediation fees. In addition to the Mediator’s fee you may have to pay for rooms if your solicitors do not have suitable rooms available. You should also factor in the cost of your solicitor attending. Some people have a barrister in attendance as well as their solicitor. Given the cost of that you will probably want a good explanation as to why your legal team consider that cost justified.So they are the costs, what are the potential savings?
Assuming no other settlement is reached the case will have to go to trial. Costs of trial include the costs of preparation, solicitors time for attending and barrister’s fee. In addition there will be court trial fee which is currently £1,000 for cases worth more than £15,000 and £500 for case worth less than £15,000.
It can be seen that early mediation can result in considerable costs savings even in cases of relatively low value (fast track claims worth less than £15,000).
If you are the party likely to be paying the other side’s costs (eg because you accept they are entitled to some money but dispute how much) it is in your best interests to resolve the dispute before costs escalate.
A factor which is difficult to put a price on is the investment of time involved in preparing for and attending a trial. Few litigants do not have something they would much rather be doing than preparing for a legal dispute, running a business for example.
