ADR

The advantages of using Negotiation rather than going to court are: speed, the negotiation method is quicker than court; formality, going through negotiation is less formal than going through court; cost, apart from the cost of travel, postage and telephone calls, there is no other fee's involved and; privacy, the cases that go through negotiation never get published to the media.

The disadvantages of using Negotiation are: imbalance of power, the opposing party may be stronger meaning that the process could become intimidating; lack of expertise, there are no lawyers or judges used in the negotiation process; lack of certainty, the parties have no sercurity that there will be a successful negotiation and; enforceability, it cannot be enforced in the way that a court can, whch could mean that it causes upset and confusion.

The advantages of using conciliation instead of going through court are: there is a pro-active element of conciliator, meaning that parties can be given advice from a neutral source and; expertise, the conciliator will have expert knowledge and experience of the types of disputes under conciliation.

The disadvantage of using conciliation is the imbalance of power; the opposing party may be stronger which could cause the conciliation process to be intimidating and upsetting.