Richard Morley Barron Mediation

What is Mediation?

Mediation is an informal, voluntary and confidential process in which a trained professional dispute resolver (the mediator) facilitates understanding, communication and negotiation between disputing parties and assists those parties in reaching their own mutually acceptable resolution to their dispute. Where the dispute is already in litigation the parties are assisted in mediation by their legal counsel. Mediation differs from negotiation in that parties with apparently incompatible positions turn over the dispute resolution process, but not the dispute itself, to the mediator. Mediation differs from arbitration in that a mediator makes no decisions as to how the case should be resolved; rather the mediator guides the parties in making this determination. Mediation differs from case evaluation in that the mediator makes no finding as to the value of the claims and there is no penalty if the mediation is unsuccessful. Mediation differs from litigation in that it is quicker and less expensive and allows the parties to work-out their own solutions in private rather than having an unknown result imposed on them by a judge or jury in a lengthy, expensive and formal process.

Mediation is built upon all of the following concepts:

• Voluntariness
• Privacy
• Confidentiality
• Economy
• Promptness
• Informality
• Control of hearing dates
• Lack of risk
• Lack of fear of an appeal from a favorable result
• Opportunity for parties to tell their entire story without rules of evidence
• High likelihood agreement is not violated

Let us never negotiate out of fear, but never let us fear to negotiate.

John F. Kennedy