When we talk about the convenience of mediation, we usually refer to the convenience of the mediation institute for citizens and businesses.
The common opinion is that, in the face of the indisputable convenience for the parties, admitted grudgingly even by the forensic class, mediation in reality is not suitable for lawyers for whom the choice of recourse to the judicial authority would be increasingly useful.
The writer has never been convinced by this thesis which would prefigure a sort of conflict of interests between the lawyer and the client https://fleetwoodfamilylaw.ca/uncontested-divorce-orders/
The following notes are meant to be a contribution on the subject to demonstrate that in reality the interests of clients and lawyers can coincide in the choice of mediation as a tool for resolving disputes.
So let’s see why, in the opinion of the writer, mediation is convenient for lawyers.
IT IS CONVENIENT FOR LAWYERS ECONOMICALLY
The objection that is most frequently heard from lawyers hostile to mediation is the following: why should I recommend the mediation procedure to the client if it is economically more convenient for me to file a lawsuit than mediation?
We then verify whether such an objection is founded by examining the revenue accounts from a mediation versus those from a lawsuit.
If we analyze the table of average fees set out in Ministerial Decree 55/2014 for a file of value from €.1,100 to €.5,200, we can see that for a first instance judgment the total fee due to the Lawyer, resulting from the sum of the four stages of cause (study of the dispute, introductory phase, preliminary phase and decision-making phase) amounts to €.2.430.
The fee due to the Lawyer for the activity provided in mediation for a case of equal value instead amounts to €.1,620 for the three phases (activation, negotiation and conciliation).
From this it follows that the fee due to the lawyer for assistance in mediation is equal to 66% of the fee due to him for the development of an entire first degree case.
For a file of the higher value bracket (from €.5,200 to €.26,000), the fee for the mediation amounts to 52% of the fee due for the case (€.2.520 compared to €.4.835).