Notarial mediation

A third person, but not just any

This third party's mission is to hear the parties and compare their points of view to enable them to find an amicable solution to the conflict between them.

The people involved in a mediation process freely agree to take part and can end it at any time.

Mediation gives the possibility to:

• Pacify the conflict by allowing everyone:
  • to express their feelings,
  • to explain
  • to participate in restoring dialogue,
  • preserve future relationships
• Empower the parties by allowing them to find a solution to their dispute themselves.
• Find an agreement:
  • quickly,
  • closer to the interests of each of the parties, in compliance with their respective rights and obligations,
  • sustainable,
  • executable without any issues, because accepted.

It has the particularity of ensuring the confidentiality of exchanges.
 

Notary as the mediator

The neutral and impartial mediator facilitates dialogue and structures your exchanges. It promotes reciprocal listening and mutual understanding, in order to help you find a long lasting, satisfactory solution that respects everyone's interests.
Its mission is to help the parties find a solution to their dispute themselves. The mediator is not interventionist: his job will be to lead the parties towards a solution that will come from them.

The mediator is not a judge, he has no decision-making power. 

Through its ethics, its status as a public officer, competence and impartiality, the notary has its place in the practice of conventional and judicial mediation.

The notary mediator must have undergone specialized training in mediation.
 

Mediation by notaries: in which areas and for which cases?

Mediation concerns all private, commercial and property disputes.

Calling upon mediation should be preferred when:

• the conflict is mainly relational or emotional;
• the conflict is most of all linked to facts and not to a problem of law;
• the dispute, if known in the public realm, could be detrimental to the parties;
• a quick solution must be found;
• it is necessary to recreate and preserve the present and future relationship…

Disputes

Personal and family disputes

• Estates
• Matrimonial regimes
• Civil unions
• Donations
• Divorces and separations

Real estate disputes

• Neighborhood disputes
• Condominiums/Housing estates
• Easements
• Housing
• All types of disputes related to leases, property and its dismemberments (usufruct, bare ownership)
• Sales and promises of sale of buildings and/or shares corresponding to division lots of a building
• Life annuities

Professional, commercial or business disputes 

• Business transfers
• Commercial leases
• Disposals of goodwill
• Labor relations and/or between associates
• Business relationships...

What is the use of a mediation?

Mediation allows the parties to reclaim the dispute and be an actor through its resolution. The more the parties are involved, the freer they feel to reach an agreement and the better it will be carried out. 

Mediation favors the confidentiality of the exchanges and the resulting agreement. In commercial relations, this can be a significant asset.

And most of all, mediation is a quick process, unlike atrial.

Mediation can last up to six months in the context of judicial mediation, sometimes a little more in the context of conventional mediation. But it is never as long as judicial time.

It also makes it possible to control the cost of the conflict. In the judicial framework, the magistrate having fixed the remuneration of the mediator, the parties know what they are committing to. In the context of conventional mediation, the cost is announced and approved by the parties prior to the mediation. 

How does a mediation take place?

• If no legal proceedings have been initiated

The parties can directly call upon a notarial mediation center either because a mediation clause has been provided for in the contract that binds them, or because they have agreed after the dispute has arisen to enter into mediation.

The center will appoint an independent, impartial and qualified notary mediator. It will have no professional or personal relationship with any of the parties.

• If proceedings have already been initiated in court, 

The judge may suggest to the parties when he deems it to be appropriate. If they agree, the judge then renders a decision ordering mediation. But the request may come from one of the parties themselves. If the judge and the other party agree, the judge can order mediation and appoint a mediator or a notarial mediation center. The judge remains in charge of the case. 
 

How does a mediation appointment take place?

Mediation begins through the establishment of a certain number of rules. There must be at least four of them: respect, non-interruption, confidentiality and application of the decision. Respect consists in renouncing any contemptuous or insulting expression, in order to speak to each other politely, according to the standards in place. The second rule consists in letting the other get to the end of his remarks, without cutting them off, including when what we hear is unbearable; in this case, the principle of reciprocity is reassuring. Confidentiality must be total. Last but not least, since the final decision is made by the parties, it is a moral commitment to be true to oneself that is required of each of them.

These preliminaries may seem obvious or trivial: in reality, they constitute a decisive foundation for the entire process.
The mediation process includes several distinct stages: some looking to the past, others to the future. The confrontation of a plurality of interpretations of the conflict makes it possible to get rid of a certain number of misunderstandings.
Each party explains their situation by expressing their feelings. After the interventions, the mediator rephrases the remarks which have been made, in order to ensure that everyone understands.

If necessary, the mediator can exchange on the side (in a room different from the one of the debates with one of the parties).
Each party, but also the mediator, can decide at any given time to end the process. This freedom is of course announced from the beginning of the mediation

The mediation agreement

Once the solution has been adopted, the mediator invites the parties to draft or have their counsel draft a mediation agreement. The mediation agreement can take different forms: a compromise, a memorandum of understanding, a transaction or an act of partition in the context of an inheritance or a divorce, a gift, a deed of sale (…) depending on what the parties have agreed.