The California Supreme Court is serious about protecting and enforcing mediation confidentiality. To be sure, the Evidence Code provides explicit protection.
Discussions that occur in mediation are confidential and cannot be introduced into evidence in later proceedings. And when it comes to the mediator, such testimony cannot be compelled “unless all parties to the mediation expressly agree . . . .” (Cal. Evidence Code section 703.
When parties participate in mediation, all statements made in the course of the proceedings are privileged and cannot become evidence in a later case. This is the essence of Evidence Code section 1119 which sets forth the “mediation privilege.