Allow Time To Resolve:

          Experienced counsel know that mediation of a dispute takes time.  As a mediator I have had cases where the participants and their counsel arrived and were ready to resolve the case and we did so within one hour.  However, this is a rare exception. 

          In most cases it takes time.  How long?  It depends.  Often it depends on the participants more than the lawyers.  There are often unseen and/or unknown reasons why a participant is not quite ready to resolve.  So be sure that you and your clients allow for sufficient time for the matter to work its way through the mediation process.  Don’t show up to a mediation with a predetermined notion that this will only take an hour or two.  Sometimes a case that involves little money will take as long as one that involves hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

          Also if you tell your client “this mediation will only take an hour or two,” they will only allow for that much time.  There is nothing worse for the mediator to have a major break through in a mediation, only to be told that, the lawyer has a deposition they have to get to, or the client has a train to catch.  So allow enough time to resolve the matter.  How much time?  Here is what I, as a mediator allow – I  set aside the entire day for your matter.  I don’t want to cut you or your client short when there is a possibility of achieving an outstanding result, if we just take the time to do it.

  © 2006, Phelps Mediation Services