A mediated settlement agreement, or MSA, is an agreement reached by two or more parties through the mediation process. This process can take place between a couple going through a divorce, companies, or business partners. During mediation, each party will be present in a separate room with their lawyer, while the mediator will come and go from room to room to help resolve the case. Mediators are usually lawyers with experience in family law or former judges.
They will provide information about what might happen if the judge were to hear the case and how a court can rule. The agreement is unique due to personal names and other informal references in the language. It should also look different from an employment contract, real estate title policy, or divorce agreement. The mediation agreement is the result of two parties coming together voluntarily to resolve their dispute under the guidance of an expert mediator.
The mediator allows them to understand and realize their respective interests and crystallize what is most important to them in order to classify the points of the dispute. The revisions of an interim agreement requested by the parties provide the mediator with an understanding of their underlying intentions towards each other and what they think about the mediation process so far. At the end of the process, when all parties have reached a satisfactory agreement with the help of the mediator, they will draft a mediated settlement agreement or “MSA”. This document will be signed by all parties involved and will be legally binding.
