§ 8.01-576.10.Confidentiality of dispute resolution proceeding.

This section wraps the whole dispute resolution process in a broad blanket of secrecy. Case files, work product, and any communication tied to the proceeding — including the intake and scheduling conversations that happen before anyone sits down together — are confidential, whether they were directed at the neutral, program staff, another party, or anyone else. The one thing that steps outside this blanket is a signed written settlement agreement, which stays confidential only if the parties choose to keep it that way.

None of that confidential material can be pulled into discovery or offered in a later court or administrative proceeding, but the section lists nine situations where the wall comes down. The parties can jointly waive confidentiality in writing. A neutral or program can use it when suing, or being sued by, a party over the proceeding itself. Evidence that existed independently and was not created specifically for the proceeding stays discoverable. Threats of bodily injury, and communications used to plan or commit a crime, are never protected. An ethics complaint against the neutral opens the door for both the complainant and the neutral to use what is necessary to prove or defend the claim. Claims of attorney misconduct during mediation, and motions to vacate a mediated agreement under the grounds in the next section, get the same treatment.

One protection survives untouched: using attorney work product during the proceeding does not waive the work-product privilege afterward.