Disputes with parties in other countries

When you have a dispute with the company, organisation or individual located outside the UK you may at first despair of the chance of resolving your problem. However, with the coming-of-age of online mediation and the comparatively low real cost of air travel, arranging business mediation is not your first problem.

Does using an alternative means of resolution benefit the other side?

The more important issue is whether you would be successful if you pursued an alternative means of resolution (usually litigation).

If your conflict party believes that you are unlikely to win by an alternative means, then he or she will be more likely to want to use that alternative means.

He or she won't want to mediate because of the possibility of losing more than through other means.

If litigation is likely, mediation will be preferable

If you are in dispute arising from a legal contract then that document will probably contain a provision as to which jurisdiction controls the outcome of the dispute.

Subject to time and cost, it is perfectly reasonable for litigation to be your ultimate backstop in all advanced economies.

Assuming that the value of your dispute makes litigation a realistic possibility then your conflict-party will understand, as you do, that mediation is a far simpler, time saving and cost effective alternative.

That leaves you with a choice between live mediation where a mediator is based either in the UK or the home country of your conflict-party, or engaging in a mediation process entirely online.

If one party or the other prefers a face-to-face mediation then it should be perfectly reasonable to expect your mediator to take the process as far as possible in advance of the final live meeting, which will then be intended to refine main points remaining after secondary matters have been agreed by teleconference or online.

Disputes with a party in the USA

You are no doubt aware that there will be additional problems in taking on the litigation system in the USA on account of the cost of dealing with both federal and state legal systems.

This does not apply to mediation. Because the cost of litigation has been so high for so long, USA mediation arrangements are the most advanced and sophisticated in the World and USA corporations are more aware of the benefits of mediation than organisations elsewhere.

The Mediator is happy to travel either to mediate alone or to co-mediate with an American counterpart, or to take your place as a negotiator and not as a mediator.