Have you tried getting a court date lately anywhere in Florida?  With the recent budget cuts to the court systems, in most counties, it could take several years before your case gets its day in court.

For this reason, more and more companies and individuals are opting for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options such as mediation and arbitration, a concept that all judicial circuits have actively embraced.

Mediation, during which a trained facilitator helps encourage open communications between both sides with a view to exploring novel solutions, is undoubtedly the most popular form of ADR, giving parties certainty, finality and control over the final outcome.

The mediator is an agent of reality, helping parties to move away from their fixed positions and truly see the other side's interests, and because the settlement is reached together, it is far more likely to be enforced and for the relationship between the two parties to be maintained, not to mention the advantage of the time and money that is saved.

The bottom line is that in no area where a dispute arises is litigation the best answer - given the value of time, relationships and reputation, all of which no amount of money can buy, mediation simply makes good, hard-nosed business sense for companies and time and money saving solution for individuals. .