WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LITIGATION, MEDIATION, AND ARBITRATION?

• Litigation is the legal court process you are used to seeing on TV, where cases are decided in a formal court setting by a judge or commissioner after everyone has presented evidence and argument.
• Mediation can take several forms, but in general terms, it describes parties in conflict sitting down with a neutral third party like a lawyer or mental health professional to work out an acceptable solution to a legal problem. Sometimes it is mandated by the courts (as is required in all custody disputes in California) and it may or may not be confidential.
• Arbitration is a blend of both litigation and mediation. The arbiter (or decider) is given the power to decide, or judge, the question at hand by the people in mediation. This means that while arbitration does not take place in a court of law, the arbiter’s decisions are legally binding.