Enforcement of the Neighborhood Dispute Mediation Agreement

Congratulations, you have successfully drafted, signed, and are now under the rules of your mediated agreement. No small task in and of itself. Now what?

Hopefully, nothing. It is our most sincere hope that all parties involved live up to their promises and behave according to the agreement.

That being said, it is not in your best interest to be one of "those people" that calls the police with every "possible" violation of the agreement. You should be very sure a violation has occurred. When it has, you really have to report it, even if it has no real impact on life. The reason being, if somebody is not playing by the rules, and nobody calls them on it, then, what was the point of the agreement in the first place?

If in doubt, contact the mediator. It has been my experience that mediators can take a violation personally. They have sunk time and effort into this process just as you have, and they want it to work as much as anyone. They can likely advise you on the course of action you should take.

When the court date arrives you could lay pretty good odds their argument will fall under one of two categories:

1. "Yes, it was a violation, and a total accident, or, not very serious and has no business being litigated."

2. "We interpreted the agreement to mean [this], and since it isn't clearly defined we should let this slide and define it further for next time."

The mediation process itself is kind of like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, what is said there stays there, so it really can't be used in court, which is how the interpretation argument works. Even if you discussed it ad nauseum during mediation, and you know damn well they are lying, you can't really say that. The only thing that matters to the judge is the outcome, that final agreement, and how it is all spelled out.

Even if a violation is not upheald in court, he good thing that comes from the trial is a more clearly defined agreement by the judge's input and orders on behavior going forward.

It's not like you walk away with nothing if your prosecution fails, you just fall back on the mediated agreement with improved definition. Therefore, if you lose, you don't really lose.

Of course, not that anyone in this situation "wins".