Mediation

It is a non-judicial method of dispute resolution that requires training. This non-jurisdictional method of dispute resolution is used extensively, particularly in labour or family disputes, commercial disputes, medical accidents and other personal injury cases.

Mediation has been part of the Civil Code since 1995 (Law no. 95-125 of 8 February 1995, inserted by Decree no. 96-652 of 22 July 1996 under articles 131-1 et seq. of the Code of Civil Procedure). It enables the parties to resume dialogue and to find a real solution to their conflict through negotiation.

For mediation to take place, the parties to the dispute must agree to see themselves as protagonists, as partners, and not as antagonists.

Mediation is therefore neither a trial nor a procedure, but a process. based on freedom. The advantage of mediation for the parties lies in the fact that they are not deprived of their dispute, that they retain control over it and that, as a result, the solution they reach is bound to be useful.

The amendment to article 2238 of the Civil Code relating to the suspension of prescription is evocative: prescription is suspended from the day on which, after a dispute has arisen, the parties agree to have recourse to mediation or conciliation or, in the absence of a written agreement, from the day of the first meeting of the mediation or conciliation.

The limitation periods start to run again for a given period. for a period of not less than 6 months from the date on which either one or both of the parties, or the mediator or conciliator, declare that the mediation or conciliation is over.