It is the objection behind most refusals: what if we spend a day and a fee and get nowhere? The honest answer has three parts — you lose nothing you walked in with, you gain something you did not have that morning, and a meaningful number of “failed” mediations settle within weeks.
What You Do Not Lose
Everything survives. Confidentiality holds: under the Mediation Act 2017, communications made during the mediation are generally confidential and inadmissible in later proceedings — so the concession you explored, the figure you floated and the weakness you acknowledged cannot be produced against you at a hearing. Your claims and defences are intact: nothing is waived by attending, no admission is created by discussing settlement, and the strength of your case is exactly what it was. Litigation proceeds unaffected: if proceedings exist they continue; if they do not, you may issue. The one thing to manage actively is the calendar — a mediation must never be allowed to consume a limitation period or a contractual time bar, which is why those dates get diarised before any process is scheduled, and why the right advice is sometimes to issue first and mediate afterwards.
What You Gain — and the Weeks Afterwards
You leave knowing things you did not know that morning: the other side’s real case, including which parts they defended hardest and which they barely mentioned; their actual motivations, which are frequently not the ones set out in correspondence (timing rather than quantum, an acknowledgment rather than money, a commercial deadline nobody had mentioned); and a sharper view of your own position, having had it tested privately by someone with no stake in flattering you. Issues narrow even where nothing settles: parties routinely discover that three of five disputes are agreed and only two are live, which shortens whatever follows. And then there is the pattern experienced mediators expect: a significant number of mediations that end without agreement settle in the following days or weeks, often on terms close to those explored in the room, once each side has slept on it, taken advice and reflected on what a hearing actually involves. The day put a deal on the table; the calendar closed it. Which is why an ending without signature is better described as unfinished than failed. If it genuinely is finished, the litigation route remains — and this being a litigation firm too, that conversation happens honestly rather than reluctantly.
The downside is genuinely capped: one prepared day, a fee agreed in writing in advance, and nothing said usable against you. Against the cost of contested proceedings, that is one of the better-priced options in dispute resolution — which is why parties who are certain they will never settle still attend.
Considering a day that might not work? 01 5827148 — conflicts check first, names of the parties.
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.