Part 1: Mr Justice Briggs on the search for a proportionate way of ensuring confidentiality in mediation
The first thing which a mediator usually says to the parties when they gather together in one room at the beginning of a typical mediation is something along these lines: “Everything that takes place today is absolutely confidential. You may make offers to each other and you may unburden yourselves to me about the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and about your hopes and fears in relation to the litigation, secure in the knowledge that nothing said today can be repeated in the outside world or, in particular, in court if today's process does not lead to a settlement.”
That this is what is said not merely in this country, but all round Europe if not all round the world, is reflected in recital 23 in the EU Directive on Mediation.
“Confidentiality in the mediation process is important and this Directive should therefore provide for a minimum degree of compatibility of civil procedural rules with regard to how to protect the confidentiality of mediation in any subsequent
