HOW WE MAKE IMPACT · MEDIATION
Resolving conflicts without a judge
Mediation and restorative justice as alternatives to legal proceedings: faster, more cost-effective, and relationships stay intact.
When is mediation the right choice?
When a legal procedure will not bring the solution: because the relationship needs to continue, because speed matters, because the underlying issue is complex, or because both parties want to save face. In those situations mediation offers a path that does justice to all interests.
Our mediation practice focuses on three main areas: workplace conflicts, business disputes (including international) and restorative justice. All mediations are delivered by MfN-registered or ADR-accredited mediators. We work confidentially, impartially and with attention to the context in which the conflict arose, legally, culturally and humanly.
Mediation is not a compromise in which both parties lose. It is a structured process in which parties themselves arrive at a solution, with a mediator who safeguards the process and does not dictate the outcome. That makes the outcome more durable: people stand behind what they themselves devised. In our experience this delivers agreements that still hold a year later, where a judicial ruling often triggers new conflicts about its implementation.
We do not see mediation as a last resort before going to court; we see it as a deliberate first choice when the situation calls for it. That is not always the case: sometimes a legal procedure is genuinely needed to establish a principle, create a precedent or restore a balance of power. Our first step is therefore always an honest assessment of whether mediation has real potential. If it does not, we say so and refer to a lawyer or arbitration party.
Our mediators work in Dutch, English and French. We have experience with disputes across national and cultural borders: a Dutch business with a Caribbean joint venture, a family business with Surinamese roots, an international NGO with a Southern-European branch manager. In all those matters, cultural sensitivity is not a side issue but a precondition for a workable outcome.
Three specialisms
Workplace mediation
Conflicts between employees, between team and leadership, or about undesirable behavior. Often in combination with our confidential-counsellor service. We mediate in teams that have stalled, between manager and employee, and in situations where reintegration after illness is blocked by underlying tensions. Also when a formal complaints procedure has ended and parties still have to work together, mediation offers a recovery path that the HR department itself often cannot provide, precisely because we stand independently as a third party.
Business & international mediation
Contract disputes, cross-border business conflicts, joint-venture disputes. Multilingual: NL/EN/FR. Experience with complex stakeholder situations in which multiple cultures, legal systems and interests intersect. Appropriate when litigation is too slow, too expensive or too unpredictable, or when the commercial interest in continuing the relationship is greater than the dispute itself. Think of supplier relationships, shareholder disputes, or partnerships under strain that do not necessarily have to end.
Restorative justice
For integrity issues, after transgressive behavior, or in a criminal-justice context. Aimed at restoring harm and dignity, not at punishment. Pascal Comvalius is co-author of the book “Mediation in strafzaken” and brings deep experience from policing, justice and victim perspectives. Restorative justice works in situations where the usual punishment or complaint system cannot repair the harm: when victim and offender remain part of the same community, when an organization has to rebuild a workable climate after a wrongdoing, or when public outrage is suffocating everyone involved.
OUR APPROACH
How we work
01
Intake (confidential)
Separate conversation with both parties. Goal: understand the situation, test willingness to mediate, set expectations. Confidential and without obligation.
02
Mediation agreement
Agreements on confidentiality, roles, timeline and costs. Signed by everyone involved before the mediation starts. A legal framework that protects the conversation.
03
Mediation sessions
Typically 2-5 sessions of 2-3 hours. Joint where possible, separate where necessary. Focus on interests, not positions. The mediator safeguards the process; parties decide the outcome.
04
Settlement agreement
All agreements captured in a legally binding settlement. Follow-up appointment 3-6 months later. That way we safeguard whether the solution holds up in practice.
What mediation delivers
A successful mediation delivers more than an agreement on paper. We typically see three types of outcome: a restored or professionally concluded relationship, significant savings of time and money compared to legal proceedings, and (at least as important) energy returning to everyone involved. Conflict costs action capacity; when resolved, that capacity becomes available again for the work people were originally hired to do.
In business disputes we often measure success in lead time: where arbitration or litigation takes nine to eighteen months, we wrap up most mediations within two to four months. In workplace matters the most common outcome is a workable continuation of the cooperation (in roughly two-thirds of cases) or a properly designed separation in which both parties feel heard. In restorative justice the outcome is often less tangible but all the more important: recognition, restoration of dignity and the prevention of new harm.
What we do not promise is that mediation is painless. It requires parties to temporarily release their positions in order to look at underlying interests, and that is uncomfortable work. But it is the kind of discomfort that leads somewhere, unlike the discomfort of a drawn-out legal procedure that mainly leads to exhaustion.
Our mediation team
Pascal Comvalius
IMI-CERTIFIED MEDIATOR
Specialist in restorative justice and criminal-justice mediation. Co-author of “Mediation in strafzaken”. Works in Dutch, English and French. Extensive experience in complex matters where culture, legal system and emotion intersect, from workplace cases to international commercial disputes and integrity matters.
Kirsten Heukels
ADR REGISTER MEDIATOR
Background in profiling and integrity investigations. Supports complex workplace cases where behavioral analysis, confidential-counsellor signals and the mediation process intersect. Maps the context of a case clearly before the mediation starts, so the sessions run more effectively.
Frequently asked questions about mediation
What does a mediation cost?
Costs depend on complexity, number of parties and session length. A typical workplace mediation consists of an intake per party and two to three joint sessions. We work with a fixed hourly rate and a clear up-front estimate of expected hours. Both parties usually share the costs equally, unless agreed otherwise in the mediation agreement. Compared to litigation in which parties keep incurring costs for years, mediation is almost always significantly cheaper.
Is everything said in a mediation confidential?
Ja. Confidentiality is set out in the mediation agreement that all parties sign before the first session. What is discussed in the mediation may not be used in any later legal proceedings. The mediator is also bound by professional secrecy. Exceptions are limited to statutory reporting duties (for example, when there is a direct threat of serious violence or child abuse).
What if mediation does not succeed?
Mediation is voluntary; either party can stop at any moment. If no solution is reached, the path to court or arbitration remains fully open. What is said in the mediation remains confidential and cannot be used against a party. In our experience, more than 70 percent of mediations lead to an outcome that the parties themselves support, even when the case initially seemed hopeless.
What is the difference between mediation and a confidential counselor?
A confidential counselor supports one party (typically a reporter of undesirable behavior) and helps that person make sense of the situation and determine next steps. A mediator, by contrast, guides both parties jointly towards a solution and is therefore by definition impartial. In some cases the two steps follow on from each other: first a confidential-counsellor track, then (if the parties so wish) a mediation to restore the relationship or wind it down properly.
TRAINING · CURAÇAO · OCTOBER 2026
Dispute resolution training: Curaçao October 2026
On 14 October 2026 Pascal delivers the “Dispute resolution / mediation basics” training in Curaçao. A one-day session for professionals who want to apply conflict-handling skills without taking on a direct mediator role. Ideal for HR advisors, managers, lawyers and compliance officers who encounter conflict in their daily work and want to be able to act more quickly. The training combines a theoretical foundation with practical simulations specifically tailored to the Caribbean context: family, relational and community dynamics often play a greater role here than in a North European corporate setting.
Related: Confidential Counselor · Crisis & Negotiation · Profiling
Putting a conflict on the table, without the weight of the courtroom
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