Part 1 of a series on mediation, by a Cypriot lawyer
Ask a Cypriot lawyer how a dispute ends, and the honest answer is rarely “with a judgment”. Most disputes end quietly, in a settlement reached somewhere between filing the claim and the first witness taking the stand. Yet we still talk about litigation as if the courtroom were the destination. This series is about the other road.
What mediation is
Mediation is a structured process in which the parties, with the help of a neutral mediator, try to reach their own agreement. The mediator doesn’t decide anything, they merely act as a middle man, a negotiation facilitator, whilst the parties get their “day in Court” and stay in control of the outcome.
Cyprus has had a statute for it since 2012, the Certain Aspects of Mediation in Civil Matters Law (159(I)/2012), which transposed the EU Mediation Directive and created registers of mediators kept by the Minister of Justice. If the parties settle, they can ask the court to make the agreement enforceable, so it can be enforced like a judgment.
The settlement we don’t count
Here is the paradox. A 2018 review of the Cypriot courts, carried out by Ireland’s Institute of Public Administration for the Supreme Court, observed that relatively few civil cases proceed to full trial. It concluded that many disputes could be settled outside the courts altogether. A figure of roughly 90% of filed actions resolving without a trial has also circulated in practitioner commentary.
What does that mean in practice? Cases overwhelmingly settle, but usually late, after years of pleadings, disclosure and adjournments, and after both sides have spent real money. The settlement is rarely the problem. The timing is.
Why timing matters here
Cyprus has a well-known delay problem. The University of Nicosia’s reading of the 2026 EU Justice Scoreboard says Cyprus remains among the slowest EU jurisdictions for first-instance civil and commercial cases. Courts are clearing cases at a good rate, but the backlog and number of pending cases haven’t fallen accordingly.
If most cases settle anyway, the useful question is whether they could settle earlier, before the costs, the stress and the damaged relationships pile up. That is where mediation fits.
A changed procedural landscape
The Civil Procedure Rules that came into force on 1 September 2023 shift the incentives. Practitioners hoped that the mandatory pre-action framework would have created a major cultural shift. The pre-action framework has shown some improvement in the numbers that settle early, however not sufficiently, despite the fact that the courts can impose costs consequences on a side that unreasonably declined to settle or to discuss settlement. Chambers’ 2026 practice guide also reports that fewer cases are being filed, which it reads as a positive sign. However, there is no saying if this decrease is due to the effect of the pre-action procedures incorporated or the fact that people are more hesitant to go to Court due to the costs and time needed for a claim to be finally heard.
Mediation under the 2012 law has long been available in court proceedings. Under Article 15, the court may invite the parties to an information session and, with everyone’s consent, pause the case for up to three months. But the system rewards the parties who use it, not the ones who ignore it.
An honest word on uptake
I won’t oversell this. Mediation has been slow to take root in Cyprus. And although a more recent practitioner guide says use has risen, that it is still a small percentage, with a preference for going to court. A 2018 article in The Cyprus Review by Anna Plevri described no official mediation statistics, a very low number of mediations, and a legal culture oriented toward litigation. And this exactly is the issue, the culture that results in having to litigate a 10 year old case, the witnesses to which have left the company, or even worst, are dead, where nobody can positively say what happened on the 14th of October 2016, half the documents have disappeared into the ether and the legal fees of the previous 2 lawyers handling the case are now nearly as much as the claim amount itself.
I think that gap is a lack of familiarity, not a lack of merit. Clients rarely ask for mediation because nobody explained it to them, and lawyers sometimes hesitate for reasons they would rather not say out loud.
What’s coming in this series
Over the next few articles I want to take mediation apart piece by piece:
- What actually happens in a mediation session, hour by hour
- How to choose a mediator, and what the mediator can and can’t do
- Confidentiality and “without prejudice”: what stays in the room
- Turning a mediated agreement into an enforceable one under Article 32
- When mediation is the wrong tool
- How lawyers prepare clients, and ourselves, for the process
If you have a question, or a story about a dispute that settled too late, I’d like to hear it. It may shape a future instalment.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Consult a qualified lawyer about your specific circumstances.
Sources
- Institute of Public Administration (Ireland), Functional Review of the Courts System of Cyprus (March 2018)
- Plevri, A., “Mediation in Cyprus: Theory Without Practice,” The Cyprus Review 30:1 (2018)
- Elias Neocleous & Co LLC, “Mediation in Cyprus” (Mondaq, 31 January 2018)
- Chambers Practice Guides, Dispute Resolution 2026: Cyprus
- University of Nicosia, “EU Justice Scoreboard 2026: Cyprus’ Long Road to Judicial Efficiency”
- Ministry of Justice and Public Order, Mediation page (gov.cy)
- Global Legal Post, Mediation Law Guide: Cyprus
