Mediators can work day, night and weekends as well as normal office hours. There may be certain practical limits, but if people in dispute are willing to communicate good mediators like ours will do what they can to facilitate that communication whenever and wherever practicable.
The flexibility of mediation means it can be conducted as soon as a dispute arises or even moments before a court is about to pass a final judgment on a matter. You can even decide to invite people to mediation before a dispute commences, so you can try to avoid getting into a dispute in the first place.
The law in England and Wales requires people to consider alternative ways to resolve their dispute without going to court, such as mediation. Court proceedings must be a last resort. If they do start court proceedings, they must keep considering whether they can resolve matters in a manner that doesn’t involve the courts. What’s more, if they unreasonably refuse to consider such alternative methods of resolving their dispute, the court can punish them with high costs.
The court must also promote, encourage and facilitate the use of non-judicial methods to resolve disputes, such as mediation, and can even order disputing parties to do so.
Mediation can also be used when a dispute has been resolved, to ensure the previously disputing parties keep to their agreements, foster effective relationships and avoid getting into a dispute in the future.