accreditations & partnerships
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It’s remarkable how often parties come to mediation without any strategy for the inevitable negotiation. Even when the defendant knows it will need to make the opening offer, it can transpire that there is no plan and no work has been done to prepare an offer, let alone one with a clear and co...
One of the key skills of an effective mediator is being quickly able to obtain the trust of the parties. Trust that the mediator is independent and impartial, trust that s/he is a safe pair of hands and that they won’t be disadvantaged by showing vulnerability and exposing weaknesses in privat...
Mediation usually comprises a series of meetings, of which the opening round table session is often the most important.
There’s no substitute for decision makers being present at the mediation. Of course cases often do settle when defendant insurers are absent, represented only by solicitors (an increasing trend), but there are occasions when settlement on the day is a step too far. In such cases, the mediation...
I was always told that the best way to do a deal was to turn up. Nowadays in mediations all too often critical decision making is handed to trusted advisers whilst their clients are in absentia. Authority to settle is therefore limited and maybe the wrong message is sent concerning their willing...
Bill Marsh, in a Kluwer Mediation Blog, reflects on the differing needs and requirements of mediation participants, and a trend for parties to require mediators to provide views on the merits of the case. Marsh suggests mediators and parties need to collaborate to mould the most effective process.
US mediator, Bennett G Picker, in an article for the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR), considers the importance of preparation for mediation by party representatives.
In the United States, there is an increasing tendency to ditch the plenary session in mediation and to rely on the mediator to act as the go-between throughout. Eric Galton and Tracy Allen, both top mediators in the USA, plead for this trend to be reversed and to allow the parties themselves to ...
We often assume that the mediation venue will have all the facilities available that we take for granted - broadband, printing, copying and so on. Mostly we mediate in modern offices but, just occasionally, there is a venue with a difference. I’ve mediated at premiership football stadiums, at ...
Increasingly our case administrators get the call: “Could we please have so-and-so mediator on such-and-such a date.” Too often the chosen mediator isn’t available and, once the date is set, it’s too tiresome to change it. Of course we then try to find a substitute mediator who is availa...
The way you react to the unexpected can make all the difference in a mediation. It’s the document that you did not expect to see or the person who turns up who you haven’t been told about that causes the greatest fuss.
As mediators, we often find ourselves helping parties to reframe offers in ways which are more likely to be palatable to the other party, based on our privileged knowledge of attitudes, needs and interests in the other room. Party representatives would do well to make good use of the mediator’...