The Expert Podcast

…Mediation has become such a powerful tool that many governments are now. Implementing it in terms of, social progress And here's an example from the state of Oregon where…they have establish a pilot program. To mediate evictions. For landlord tenant cases. And in this case they put together. A mediation board. Which helps tenants and landlords both resolve conflicts and issues when there's a problem with housing. And the executive director of this program has very good observation that says if people are creative and want to talk about it, there's lots of solutions that aren't textbook And this is exactly what a mediation does. Many times the parties in a case. Really can only see certain solutions There might be a very obvious beneficial solution to both parties. That is. Right before their eyes that they just don't know about or they can't see because they're only looking at it from one perspective. It's not that anybody's doing anything wrong. It's just that. Many times parties come to it which is one point of view. And it's not that you have to take the other person's point of view. Or you have to give into the other person many times there's a solution that benefits both parties to a conflict equally Sometimes. You end up better off than you even if you won the case. And this is a good perspective from one of the mediators it says that. The mediator can really think about what the solution is So everybody walks away feeling like they got what they needed out of the conversation. And that's what a good mediation does, where everybody walks away feeling like they got something beneficial. Certainly. There may be some compromises are give and take, but usually…those give and take factors are much less than what it would have been. If you have to go to court or if you fought it out on a more. Contentious nature. One of the other factors to mediation being adopted is sometimes one or both of the parties is reluctant to do it And this article gets into that. It taught. about landlords are most reluctant, but not because they're opposed to it They just feel like there might be something that's going against them. 41% of the time negotiation ends with an agreed upon move-out date. Right So that benefits the landlord. A lot of times landlords have been fighting. For non-payment or something else for many many months or many many years, and immediation can help alleviate that and get a firm move-out date in agreement with the resident. Remember the mediator is a neutral third party. It's a…party which is unbiased and impartial. And that may be one of the hangups where some landlords. think that the mediation only benefits tenants. Right. But the mediator is there to try to serve both parties and come up with a solution not just a win for one of the. Two parties to the conflict, such a resolution saves money for everybody Right The landlord doesn't have to go to court pay court fees. Wait several months to get in front of a judge. the tenant gets a firm resolution maybe gets some breathing room so they're not evicted in two days They maybe have a couple of weeks…and the state saves money because they don't have court resources tied up for a conflict that can be resolved with a. Dispute resolution process outside of the court system.