Most commercial contract disputes are presented as a question about liability and are actually a question about the future: do you want this relationship to continue? Answer that first, honestly, because it determines the strategy — and because litigation answers only the liability question while reliably destroying the relationship one.
If the Answer Is Yes
Then a claim is close to self-defeating. Proceedings are designed to establish who was right; they are extraordinarily effective at ending commercial relationships, and the costs of replacement are frequently larger than the sum in dispute — a supplier whose product is embedded, a customer who represents a chunk of turnover, a system half-implemented, a market small enough that everyone knows everyone. Mediation can produce what no court orders: revised terms going forward, a payment plan for what is owed, agreed service levels with a review mechanism, a probation period with an exit ramp if things do not improve, and a short dispute route for the next disagreement. The current problem gets solved and its cause gets addressed — which litigation, by design, never does.
If the Answer Is No — and the Currency Nobody Mentions
Mediation is usually still the better route, because ending a commercial relationship has far more moving parts than a judgment covers: what is owed, what is returned or transferred, what happens to customers and data and staff, what each side says publicly, what remains confidential, what claims are released, and over what timescale. A court decides the money and leaves the rest to correspondence. And this is where the underrated point sits: a mediated settlement can include currency no judge could ever award — future trading terms, a transition period, an agreed public statement or agreed silence, return or destruction of materials, an apology, revised pricing, credit against future orders, an agreed reference, confidentiality wider than any court order. Those components frequently cost the paying party far less than their cash equivalent and are worth more to the receiving party, which is precisely why packages settle where numbers deadlock. One honest caveat: where a debt is undisputed, the documents are clean and the debtor has simply not paid, the recovery route is usually the efficient one — and you will be told so rather than sold a day. The full contract page covers the sorting question and the timing rules; the cheapest fix of all is a mediation clause in the next contract.
The timing rule that overrides everything: never let a mediation timetable eat a limitation period or a contractual time bar. If a deadline is close, issue to protect the position and mediate afterwards — proceedings can be adjourned for exactly that purpose, and the two are entirely compatible.
A contract relationship under strain? 01 5827148 — one sentence on whether you want it to survive.
Richard O’Shea — Solicitor & Mediator
Solicitor at Mary Molloy Solicitors (established 1981), holder of the Law Society of Ireland Diploma in Mediation and a TEP of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Mediations are conducted at The Ormond Building on Ormond Quay, at the firm’s Kilkenny office, at neutral venues, at the parties’ own premises — or fully online. Fees are agreed in writing with all parties before any mediation begins. 01 5827148 · richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com · LinkedIn
General information, not legal advice. The content of this website is general information about mediation and Irish law. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every dispute turns on its own facts, and advice on yours requires a consultation.
The mediator is not your legal adviser. Where Mary Molloy Solicitors is appointed as mediator, the mediator is neutral: the mediator acts for no party, advises no party, and does not decide the dispute. All parties are encouraged to take independent legal advice, and in particular to take advice before signing any mediation settlement. The firm does not act as mediator in any dispute in which it acts, or has acted, for a party — conflicts are checked before any appointment is accepted. Where the firm is instructed as solicitor for one party in a mediation, it acts for that party alone and does not act as mediator in that dispute.
Fees. Fees for mediation are agreed in writing with all parties before the mediation begins, and fees for legal services are agreed in writing with the client at the outset. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.
Tax. Nothing on this website is tax advice. Where a dispute or its resolution has tax consequences — succession, business transfers, property, compensation payments — those questions belong with your accountant or tax adviser and with Revenue’s own guidance, and are best addressed before any settlement is signed.