Mediation, arbitration, and litigation are three different ways to handle a legal conflict, but they differ profoundly: mediation is a facilitated negotiation that produces a non-binding agreement (unless the parties make it binding), arbitration is a private binding trial with limited appeals, and litigation is the public court process with full appeals. A key surprise: in arbitration, the parties often give up their right to appeal and sometimes their right to a jury, making the arbitrator's decision nearly final—something many people only realize when they try to appeal an arbitration award and find they can't.