§ 1824.Provisions Applying to Court-Ordered Mediation

Section 1824 governs mediation a court orders under Section 1823. Mediation is a process where an impartial mediator facilitates communication between the disputing parties to promote understanding, reconciliation, and settlement, meeting with participants together or individually. The mediator acts as an advocate for settlement, helping the parties explore areas of agreement -- but doesn't serve as a judge, and has no authority to decide any disputed issue or force a settlement. The parties themselves are responsible for negotiating a resolution, and they have to participate in good faith and put forth their best efforts to settle everything, or as much as they can.

No one with a financial or personal interest in the outcome may serve as mediator, and a mediator has to disclose anything likely to create a presumption of bias or prevent a prompt meeting with the parties. Sessions are private, open only to the parties, interested non-parties, their representatives, and anyone else all of them and the mediator agree to let in.

Confidentiality runs deep: communications about the dispute made during mediation are confidential and generally can't be used as evidence or discovered, though a fact that's independently discoverable elsewhere doesn't lose that status just because it also came up in mediation. There's no stenographic or electronic record unless the parties, non-parties, and mediator all agree to one and the law doesn't otherwise forbid it, and no participant -- including the mediator -- can be subpoenaed or compelled to disclose what happened in setting up or conducting the mediation. Nobody can be served with a subpoena, summons, or other legal process at or near the mediation site because they're there for the mediation.