The civil justice system is intentionally adversarial. The rules pit one party against the other in a contest to see who will win the case. It is sometimes said that from these competitive, adversarial contests, justice will emerge when the court rules for one party or the other.

But this competitive, adversarial approach is completely out of place in a mediation because, unlike a judge or jury, the mediator cannot rule in anyone’s favor. Mediation is defined by Section 44.1011 of the Florida Statutes as “A process whereby a neutral third-party acts to encourage and facilitate the resolution of a dispute between two or more parties.”