We used to practice different methods of dispute resolution at CEDIRES, depending on the nature of the dispute and the wishes of the parties.
We focused on arbitration, the most traditional method of ADR, which offers the advantage of a decision being rendered much quicker than through court proceedings, and at the same time, the parties have the certainty that a decision shall actually be rendered (even if they finally do not find a solution agreeable to all of them).
There are considerable similarities between arbitration and court proceedings, except that the person deciding the matter is not a judge appointed by the government. Depending on the nature of the case, it is sometimes possible to opt for arbitration proceedings without assistance (and without the cost) of legal counsel, or with the assistance of technical advisors only.
Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution which does have important advantages: a solution agreeable to both parties is more often a solution which is respected by the parties afterwards and which sometimes also enables the parties to continue to do business with each other after the termination of the dispute. However, there’s a serious potential disadvantage: if the parties do not come to a solution agreeable to all of them, the mediation process has failed and has been a mere waste of time.
Hence, we at CEDIRES often opted for the method of “mediation-arbitration”. This entailed the certainty that, after a mediation attempt, the dispute shall be ended, if necessary by arbitration. Even in that case, the parties still have the possibility to deviate, if they both agree to that, from the arbitral award. That reduces to zero the chance that the alternative dispute resolution effort would be a mere waste of time. The parties know for a fact that a solution shall be obtained, either because they agree to it, or because it shall be contained in an arbitral award.
Further details can be found in our Procedural Rules. An additional guarantee that no time can be wasted with discussions regarding the question which formula would be acceptable for both parties, is that we have only one set of Procedural Rules. We do not work with separate rules for arbitration, mediation, mediation-arbitration, mini-trials: our Rules of Procedure apply to all methods of dispute resolution. If, under the circumstances of the matter, mediation or a mini-trial does not stand a chance, or would be unsuccessful, we shall switch to arbitration. Even if the parties fail to agree on anything whatsoever after the dispute has arisen (not even on which method of dispute resolution is to be applied), the dispute shall still be resolved. Using our dispute resolution clause in your contracts suffices.