Mediation Act has hardly any impact on the mediation market

This is the conclusion of a study published in July 2017 by the German Research Institute for Public Administration in Speyer. The study on the effects of the Mediation Act on the development of mediation in Germany and the situation regarding the training and further education of mediators, which was commissioned by the German government, concludes, among other things, that the mediation market in Germany is stagnating. According to the report, more than two thirds (67%) of the approximately 1,000 mediators surveyed conducted fewer than 5 mediations or none at all in 2016 (13% of them not at all).
This result is not really surprising, as many advisors (lawyers, tax advisors, etc.), who are supposed to show their clients all possible ways of resolving conflicts, still have little or no knowledge of out-of-court dispute resolution procedures.
This finding is consistent with the results of the current “ROLAND Legal Report 2017”. According to this report, a majority of Germans (67%) would prefer mediation proceedings to court proceedings in the event of a conflict. So if a majority of Germans prefer an out-of-court dispute resolution procedure to court proceedings, it is obviously due to the advisors that the court route is more likely to be used to resolve conflicts and therefore the mediation market is stagnating despite the Mediation Act.
Among the legal and tax advisory professions in particular, it appears that there is still some work to be done to raise awareness of the opportunities and potential of out-of-court dispute resolution procedures.
You can find the Federal Government’s evaluation report and the ROLAND Legal Report 2017 in our download center.