Intermediation is the process by which the parties to a dispute determine, with the help of an impartial third party, the individual aspects of their disagreement, explore alternative ways to resolve them and attempt to reach a resolution which will meet and satisfy their true interests.

There are certain advantages to intermediation as an institution, which a civil trial cannot guarantee to the same extent, due to its intent and structure. More specifically, the relevant procedure is characterized by confidentiality, resulting in the safeguarding of the potentially confidential information of the parties; by flexibility, since its course is freely determined by the intermediator in collaboration with the parties and by the control the parties have on its duration and, more importantly, on its outcome, since it is up to them and them alone to decide the way by which their dispute will be resolved, or to terminate the process whenever they so wish. A possible agreement in intermediation shall ensue after the parties, assisted by the intermediator, bring to the surface and evaluate even non-legal particulars which may serve their interests. This potential to disengage from legal particulars and arguments constitutes a determinative factor of intermediation, since resolutions are more oriented towards the parties’ interests, while it is possible to include in the intermediation even claims that are tied to the original dispute, something impossible in the context of court practices and judicial processes.

Particular significance must be attributed to the avoidance of a long-lasting court dispute by resolving the dispute as the result of the commensurable and amicable satisfaction of the individual interests of the parties and their willingness to continue their business or other cooperation for the benefit of themselves and their greater business or social sphere or, at least, to resolve their dispute at the lowest possible loss for both parties.

Only private law disputes, with respect to which a compromise can be stipulated, pursuant to substantive law, can be subsumed to intermediation. The provisions for the process of intermediation are not applicable to rights and obligations with respect to which the parties cannot freely decide based on the relevant applicable law, and in particular taxation, customs or administrative affairs or claims against the State on the grounds of actions or omissions at the exercise of state power and authority.

We recommend an appeal to the process of intermediation for the following reasons:

• You save time, since your dispute is resolved more quickly compared to the exhausting litigation to which you will be subjected should you opt to appeal to the courts or to some other legal remedy, especially when you take account of the very slow award of justice in our country;
• you save on court costs and the legal fees for the trial;
• you do not waive your right of access to courts, at any case;
• in case of failure, the documents used in the process of intermediation will not be used against you in some other civil or criminal trial;
• you resolve your disputes with the counterparty in an amicable manner and not by back-to-back court battles;
• you may potentially continue to transact with the other party, since relations between the parties will not be disrupted.