Mediation is confidential, by law, unless the parties and the mediator agree to a waiver of confidentiality (which rarely occurs). Confidentiality applies to what the parties say to each other as well as what the parties tell the mediator privately.  In addition, the parties may wish to consider multiple approaches especially to complex problems, such as both mediation and arbitration.  Care should be taken if more than one approach is to be used so that the neutral is not given confidential information in mediation and thereafter asked to make a "decision" because of the difficulty in separating confidences learned during mediation from the evidence presented during arbitration.  For this reason, when multiple approaches are to be used, the parties should consider the sequence of approaches as it relates to the potential for disclosing confidences.  Non-binding arbitration followed by mediation is a technique to minimize the ethical problem involving confidential information.