Mrs. Jacobsen has two sons, Charles and John. For a number of years the relationship between Mrs. Jacobsen and Charles has been poor and she has decided to remove him from her will. Charles initiates legal action. He no longer understands his mother. For many years, they had lived together and had been very close. It is a very bitter dispute; Charles makes known his suspicion that his mother is no longer capable of acting in a legal capacity and requests a medical examination. Luckily, mediation was still an option. The mediation is a difficult process and, as is usual in the case of family disputes, this process takes time. The mother refuses to make known her feelings in this matter. However, the mediator has the feeling that important information is being withheld. With a great deal of patience, the mediator was able to gain the mother’s trust, who then revealed that she was extremely upset by the arrival of her new daughter-in-law, Claire. She felt that she had been pushed aside by Charles. She now has to go to doctors’ appointments on her own. Previously she had always been accompanied by Charles. When she was very sick two months ago and Charles was away travelling, her daughter-in-law didn’t look after her at all.

Result: The mediation process provides insight into the underlying emotions and interests. As is often the case in these sorts of conflicts, poor communication and misunderstanding are at the heart of the problem. Mrs. Jacobsen and her son Charles both want to see the continuation of a good relationship. Claire is also invited to be part of the process. Claire is unaware of any wrongdoing on her part. She didn’t know that her mother-in-law was sick, she has a full-time job and when her mother-in-law telephoned in the evening she said nothing about being ill.

Real time: 6 weeks. Actual time taken 8 hours. The entire mediation was conducted offline, although it was supported by text communication via the Juripax platform. Particularly the mother and the mediator had ongoing communication during the entire mediation process. Part of this communication was in private giving the mother the possibility to vent her emotions freely and allowing the mediator the necessary leeway to re-frame and filter her messages to the other side. There were discussions by telephone and on the discussion platform.

Employment conflict

Mrs. Weinstein has worked for a number of years in the internal sales department of her current employer. She had always enjoyed her work until the arrival of her new manager, Mr. Moureau last year. She believes Mr. Moureau asks too much of her. She is a single mother with three children and cannot meet his request to participate in meetings outside of working hours and/or dine with business relations in the evenings. According to Mrs. Weinstein, Mr. Moureau doesn’t have a family and works around the clock. Mrs. Weinstein is scared she will lose her job. She doesn’t discuss her problems directly with Mr. Moureau and is reporting in sick more often than she had in the past in order to avoid her added commitments.

The situation escalates, Mr. Moureau becomes dissatisfied with her work and Mrs. Weinstein’s dilemma becomes even more serious. She cannot afford to lose her job. On the one hand, she feels guilty about her colleagues who have to cover for her while she is sick-listed, while at the same time she has to pick up her kids every afternoon at six o’clock at the very latest. There are various discussions between Mrs. Weinstein and Mr. Moureau. The tone is largely reproachful and fails to produce any kind of solution. Mr. Moureau threatens to dismiss her. In the end, Mrs. Weinstein goes to Human Resources, who propose the use of an external mediator.

Result: the mediator is able to bring the underlying interests out in the open. Mrs. Weinstein’s dilemma is made clear: It seemed that Mr. Moureau wanted to help her. He thinks she’s a good employee and was actually trying to involve her more in other non-standard activities. He simply couldn’t understand her “ingratitude”. Last year he went through a divorce. He accepted that he should be more understanding of staff with a family.

Real time: 4 weeks. Actual time taken 4 hours. Due to the problematic relationship and rather destructive communication, the case intake and first discussions were conducted online. The textual and delayed communication facilitated time to reflect and a (cooling) distance from the other party, which in this specific situation turned out to be very helpful. As the discussions became more constructive, due to the re-found trust in each other, there were two concluding face-to-face discussions.

Bitter divorce and access to children

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are going through a nasty divorce. They have two children, Mary, 12, and Jonas ,14. Mrs. Johnson has a new partner, Mr. Smith, who also has two children from a previous marriage. Mr. Johnson feels deceived by Mrs. Johnson. Agreeing to anything is difficult and bitterness stands in the way of discussing property settlement, alimony and access to the children in a constructive way. Discussions on practical matters deteriorate and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson don’t seem capable of coming to any agreement. Luckily, they don’t lose sight of what is in the best interest of the children. They decide to try to agree to child-access arrangements through a mediation process. This reveals that Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Johnson are capable of reaching an agreement.

Result: Practical problems such as the allocation of holidays and free days are discussed. During the entire mediation process, the children had access to the written communication between the parents on Juripax’ discussion platform. Perhaps this also contributed to the constructive dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Johnson that ultimately emerged. The asynchronous, textual communication ensures that emotions do not get the upper hand. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson benefit from not being able to react immediately to each other’s statements and proposals and being able to formulate their own messages more carefully. The fact that the children could view the process enhances the support for the outcome. The terms are set out in an agreement. The outcome of this online mediation is positive for all concerned.

Real time: 4 weeks. Actual time taken 4.5 hours. The entire mediation process was conducted online. The final agreement was signed in a personal session, in the presence of the children.

The above case studies are all real examples of mediation at work. For purposes of confidentiality, all names and references that would enable personal identification in any way have been removed.

In practice 70–80% of all claims supported by ODR technology can be resolved in direct negotiations. The remaining 20% of the disputes are mediated by an independent third party. The success rate of online mediation lies somewhere between 80% and 90%, and 85% of the users indicate that they would be willing to use ODR again in future disputes.