Florida courts generally require mediation prior to a specified time before trial. Mediation is usually conducted near the close of discovery or shortly thereafter. The benefit of this timing is that most of the key facts are known to the parties. The parties have had ample time to digest documents produced by all parties and from independent sources. Parties have responded to interrogatories, witnesses have been deposed and other potential evidence has been reviewed enabling an informed evaluation of the case. Almost as important, the parties have been sensitized to the costs of litigation including attorney fees and lost employee time opportunity costs. Witnesses have experienced the anxiety of testifying and the emotional toll the process often takes on participants.

If mediation is conducted late in the case the parties also have likely been educated through questioning in depositions, review of documents and through opposing arguments presented in memoranda or court hearings, that their version of the events can be persuasively challenged. Mediation after discovery also has the benefit of time pressure. An expensive trial is looming, coupled with judgment day with possible damage to personal or business reputation, loss of individual property or rights, or a possible large adverse verdict. It is no wonder mediation shortly before trial often results in compromise and settlement.