The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offers mediation for discrimination charges that have not yet turned into lawsuits.  Should you accept the invitation to mediate and consider compromise when you have done nothing to violate the law?

Agreeing to participate in mediation is not a showing of weakness.  To the contrary, it signals only an intent to act in good faith to determine if the parties most impacted by a dispute can reach a sensible resolution before a third party takes over and imposes a result.

Perhaps.  The dynamics of each case are different, but in some situations, mediation can be a low-cost, efficient and creative alternative to resolve a dispute in a way that makes more business sense than traditional litigation in the courtroom.

Some points to consider:

• A mediator facilitates a negotiated resolution between the parties to a dispute.  A mediator is not an arbitrator or a judge, does not make any decisions about the dispute, and cannot force any party to settle.
• A mediator can communicate to each side the strengths and weaknesses of its position in an unbiased, unemotional way.
• A mediator can assist the parties to fashion their own, creative solution to the dispute.  In mediation, the parties are not bound by the legal remedies that are available to a court.
• The mediation process provides the parties with an opportunity to sit face to face with the shared goal of reaching resolution.  Given that the parties know more about the dispute than anyone, they are better positioned to resolve it than is a judge or jury.
• The mediation process can be cathartic.  Frequently, after a party has had an opportunity to vent, the path toward resolution becomes clearer.
• Many employment matters can be mediated in a day or less.  Compared to the expense of litigation lasting months to years, the cost savings are obvious.
• Mediation is educational.  Even if a dispute does not settle in mediation, both parties take away a better understanding of the dynamics of the case.