The following provisions shall apply to any mediation ordered by a court pursuant to Section 3 of this act:
1. Mediation shall be a process in which an impartial person, the mediator, facilitates communication between disputing parties to promote understanding, reconciliation, and settlement. Participants shall include the mediator, the parties, interested non-parties or their representatives, and all others present. The mediator may meet with participants together or individually;
2. The mediator shall be an advocate for settlement and use the mediation process to help the parties fully explore any potential areas of agreement. The mediator shall not serve as a judge and shall not have authority to render any decisions on any disputed issues or to force a settlement between the parties;
3. The parties shall be responsible for negotiating any resolution to a dispute. Parties shall participate in mediation in good faith, and put forth their best efforts with the intention to settle all issues if possible. If the parties are unable to settle all issues, they shall attempt to settle as many issues as possible;
4. No person with any financial or personal interest in the result of mediation may serve as a mediator. Prior to agreeing to mediate a dispute, the mediator shall disclose any circumstances likely to create a presumption of bias or prevent a prompt meeting with the parties;
5. Mediation sessions shall be private. Persons other than the parties and interested non-parties and their representatives may attend only with the consent of the parties, interested non-parties, and the mediator;
6. Any communication relating to the subject matter of the dispute made during the mediation process by a participant or any other person present at the mediation shall be a confidential communication. No admission, representation, statement, or other confidential communication made in setting up or in conducting the mediation shall be admissible as evidence or subject to discovery, except that, no fact independently discoverable shall be nondiscoverable solely by virtue of having been disclosed in such confidential communication. There shall be no stenographic or electronic record, including audio or video, of the mediation process unless it is agreed upon by the parties, interested non-parties, and the mediator, and it is not otherwise prohibited by law. No participant in the mediation proceeding, including the mediator, shall be subpoenaed or otherwise compelled to disclose any matter disclosed in the process of setting up or conducting the mediation proceeding; and
7. No subpoena, summons, complaint, petition, citation, or other process of any kind may be served upon any person who is at or near the site of any mediation session and is there because of the mediation.
Added by Laws 1998, c. 321, § 4, eff. Nov. 1, 1998.