This article uses longitudinal contact data to examine if third-party dispute resolution procedures available in Ontario improve the health of bargaining relationships and contribute to their preservation. It performs this in two manners: (1) using survival analysis to see how the mechanisms correlate with the likelihood of relationship dissolution and (2) using dynamic panel models to observe their state dependence. The latter is undertaken to see if third-party intervention pushes the parties to settle subsequent agreements earlier in the process – a finding that would reveal another aspect of relationship preservation if those earlier interventions are shown to correlate with lower likelihoods of dissolution. While the survival analysis does show that the earlier procedures in the dispute resolution process associate with lower likelihoods of dissolution than later ones, the dynamic panel model estimates do not indicate that third-party intervention induces voluntary or even earlier settlements in subsequent rounds of bargaining.