You are in the midst of a dispute with a customer. On the one hand, you have not been paid for over $2,500 of shoeing work that you have done on the customer’s horses. On the other hand, the customer is refusing to pay you any money because he claims that you trimmed one of his horses too short, causing it to be temporarily sore and miss a day of competition.

This customer has been one of your best shoeing clients over the years and you believe that chances are good that you and he will patch things up over time.

Is this dispute best suited for the traditional court system? Not necessarily. You might want to consider submitting it to mediation. This article explains:

• What mediation is.

• How mediation differs from the traditional court system.

• What happens in a mediation session.

• Why some disputes are better suited for mediation than others.

• Where to learn more about mediation.

What Mediation Is

Mediation is a process in which the parties to a dispute agree to allow one or more unbiased persons to help them resolve it.

Mediation is an alternative to the traditional court system. In a typical lawsuit, a clear winner or loser will usually emerge. That is, when a court battle ends, you will have won a judgment for all of your money or you will take nothing. With mediation, the goal is to achieve a “win-win” result where the outcome is acceptable to all.

The Mediation Meeting

The…