Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

If this is not yet a lawsuit and no attorneys are yet involved, you could help out, but there's more to being a mediator than just knowing some landlord-tenant law.

The law favors amicable settlements of legal disputes and Illinois has no formal licensing requirements if the situation is not already in court or in arbitration. However, mediation skills include the knowledge of potential areas of liability and defenses, because one of the keys to mediation is to make the parties aware of the strengths and weaknesses in their legal cases. Moreover, mediation involves understanding what information is confidential and what information can be shared, or should be shared. Everything should be done, and properly documented, for settlement purposes only by agreement of the parties, because if you reveal confidential information without those protections, you may be prejudicing one party against the other and could become liable for that alone. Ultimately, unlike arbitration or a court case, mediation simply seeks to assume the parties are willing to come to some kind of economic settlement and to know how to "maneuver" the parties to a mutually acceptable arrangement.

Furthermore, if there is a lease in place the lease may specify the dispute resolution methods for the parties. Mediation may only be voluntary and if it fails the parties may still have their leasehold rights (court or arbitration, perhaps). And again, if mediation is attempted without the proper protections regarding disclosures, this could open up a can of worms.