Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If the mediator was sharp they included in the agreement to mediate that the terms agreed to could be made public in order to enforce the agreement. You then make a motion in the case involved to enforce the Settlement Agreement asking the judge to order that the terms agreed to are put into effect.

Mr. Shers makes an assumption about your question that I think is not correct. His answer assumes that you are asking about failure to comply with an agreement reached in mediation. As written your question appears to me to be asking what happens when one party to an agreement to mediate refuses to mediate. If Mr. Shers is right, great. If not, let me know and I will answer the question you really asked.

If a party has been ordered to go to mediation, and they refuse to go, they can be sanctioned by the court that ordered them to go to mediation. If a settlement agreement was made at the mediation, and is in writing and signed by the parties, it can be enforced as a judgment pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6.

Do you mean an agreement to mediate, or a settlement agreement reached during mediation?

The former is probably non-binding. The latter may be binding on the parties, if it were signed with the intent to be bound, and was sufficiently definite and complete.

Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6 allows a court to enforce a written and signed settlement agreement in a lawsuit as though it were a judgment of the court.