Thank to Charles Middleton-Smith for pointing out a very interesting article from by his colleague, Antoine Adeline of Hammonds Hausmann in Paris.

Nothing to lose and everything to gain

The article is in French and Google Translate does a fair job of translating the text for those of you who don’t speak French…

Cour de Cassation

In brief the article is prompted by a recent judgment (8 April 2009) by the Court of Cassation which strengthens and clarifies a previous decision by the Joint Chamber of the Court of Cassation on 14 February 2003.

The meaning of which is that, in France, if the contract terms include a mediation clause no one can afford to fluff through the “invitation to mediate process”. The recent judgment makes clear that if you have a contract term to mediate, you must tick the box to confirm that mediation has been attempted and when you do,  you must make sure that you have indeed tried to mediate. Without evidence eg. that a mediator was actually appointed, ticking the box will not “tick the box”.

As Antione Adeline says, when at least 2/3 of mediated cases settle then you have “nothing to lose and everything to gain.”