Where Mediations Take Place?

• I also mediate at parties homes, if it is possible to do so, I usually only do this for boundary disputes, as the boundary is the subject of the dispute, it makes sense to mediate on site and see the actual issues and try resolve the same, however having said that I have also mediated boundary disputes from solicitors offices and not always from site.
• Online mediation, through the Zoom video platform. Which has so many benefits.
• Over the telephone, where for some reason, mostly due to ill health, or to save on costs, or there is just too much distance between the parties and it is feasible, I will and do mediate over the telephone, however it is important to note with telephone mediation services the following protocol should be followed, in my fourteen years of mediation experience and the below situations, telephone mediation would really only be suitable for;

• Straight forward and uncomplicated disputes.
• Those disputes with relatively a small to medium sized value so perhaps £30,000 or less.
• Although distance and getting parties together all on the same date can be an issue, and a telephone mediation can easily get around syncing of diaries and avoiding distance, this should not replace a normal face to face mediation, if the dispute does not meet the criteria above, for example if the dispute is complicated and has a high value, regardless of the distance then a face to face mediation should take place.

Where do mediations take place…………

Therefore to conclude a mediation can really take place wherever you would like it to take place, as long as the location and venue has been agreed by all party to the dispute, and is accessible, I actually mediated on a car park once, as the claimant ran his offices from there and it actually was ideal as the dispute was over a BMW which had been parked on the car park and had been sold off as no one came to recollect it after the season ticket that the defendant had paid for expired, however there were two separate office spaces, not ideal, but it worked!

Finally, any venue and location must also have adequate facilities, i.e. internet, access to emails and telephones, separate rooms which if possible are not next to each other for confidentiality purposes and it is the mediators’ role to ensure all of this is in place when arranging any venue. Where do mediations take place, well, where you want them to?