§ 9-17-6.Limited disclosures by mediators

A mediator who doubles as an evaluator for the judge deciding the case stops being a neutral. This section keeps that from happening by cutting off the mediator’s ability to weigh in on the merits. Subsection (a) bars a mediator from giving a court, agency, or other authority with power to rule on the dispute any report, assessment, evaluation, recommendation, finding, or other communication about the mediation — the kind of input that could tell a decision-maker who was right.

Subsection (b) leaves three narrow openings. A mediator can say whether the mediation took place or ended, whether the parties reached a settlement, and who attended — logistical facts, not judgments about the dispute. A mediator can disclose anything Code Section 9-17-5 already strips of privilege, since that section’s exceptions operate independently of this one. And a mediator can report a mediation communication that shows abuse, neglect, abandonment, or exploitation of an individual to the public agency responsible for protecting that person, regardless of what the reporting ban in subsection (a) would otherwise allow.

Subsection (c) gives the reporting ban a practical backstop. If a mediator violates subsection (a) anyway, the resulting communication cannot be considered by the court, agency, or arbitrator that receives it — the decision-maker has to disregard it rather than weigh it against the parties.