To define problems or disputes
Mediation can be used for the sole purpose of defining which issues are in dispute and which are not. This process is sometimes referred to as scoping, and is regarded as an appropriate role for mediation in some planning and environmental disputes. Once the problem has been adequately defined, it can be referred to other methods of dispute resolution, such as litigation or a public inquiry.
This use of mediation is often overlooked, and should not be. A dispute that is poorly defined is a dispute that cannot be efficiently resolved by any method: the parties spend their resources arguing past one another, and the tribunal spends its time untangling what is actually in contention. An early, structured session that does nothing more than separate the agreed from the disputed can shorten every stage that follows — and not infrequently, once the issues are laid out plainly, the parties discover that what remains between them is narrow enough to settle on the spot.
