From what event does the time to complete mediation run, and how may that period be extended?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the application for mediation under the preceding provision and its filing date, since the period runs from the day that application was made. We also check the papers showing whether the undertaking is an ordinary business or a public-interest business, and any written agreement of the parties concerned to extend.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision as a firm deadline: mediation must be concluded within the period the provision sets, counted from the day the application for mediation was made, and that period is the shorter one for an ordinary business and the longer one for a public-interest business.
Another reading stresses the second paragraph's limit: the period may be extended only by agreement of the parties concerned, and only within the same period the provision sets, so a longer extension by agreement alone goes beyond what the provision permits.
Your judgment
If mediation ran past the period with no agreement on file, what in the record would show whether the business was a public-interest one?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the periods, their starting point or the effect of a late conclusion, or if a decision settles what counts as a public-interest business.