Effective conflict management is as important to a company as any other business strategy. Disputes involving companies can become costly and time consuming, and consequently often do not achieve business goals. Alternative dispute resolution procedures offer companies great advantages. Compared to court proceedings, they are significantly shorter; for example, mediation lasts three hours on average, arbitration takes several months, while a court procedure lasts at least three years until it is finalised. The time savings are therefore exceptional.

These short-term solutions bring direct cash savings for the short time in which they are finalised and as a rule, the parties split the costs. According to a survey carried out in the EU, involving all Member States, including Slovenia, the average savings in a mediation are €13,000, calculated per average value of the dispute[1].

A great advantage of the process is confidentiality, which is demanded by the law in Slovenia. Unlike in court procedures, which are public and often result in “public airing of dirty laundry” between conflicting parties, this cannot happen in alternative dispute resolution procedures, since the procedures are completely confidential.

All about the alternative dispute resolution procedures can be found at the European Centre for the Dispute Resolution’s website: http://www.ecdr.si/index.php?id=3

[1] “The cost of non ADR – Surveying and showing the actual cost of intra-community commercial litigation“, ADR Center, Italy, funded by the EU.