The Expert Podcast

Okay So you may have been told by the court or your attorney or maybe a counselor. That you should or have to do mediation Maybe you have a lawsuit a conflict, a divorce. And as part of that somebody is telling you that you have to do mediation or you should do mediation. That may be the reason why you're inquiring about that process So what is mediation? How does it help you?

How does it create an obstacle for you Well, Mediation. Is. A process where a third party unbiased person helps you solve the conflict without having to go to court without having to pay legal fees. Done in complete privacy where unlike a court hearing. That all evidence.

Is in the public record. mediation is done privately with discretion and confidentiality. In addition the mediator sometimes called a neutral or arbitrator. Is not on any one person's side unlike your attorney who may be trying to negotiate for you or settle a case with the other party, they have your interest in mind only They're not trying to find a neutral.

position They're not trying to find a mutually agreeable position. They have to advocate for your position only which is right That's what they should do. But sometimes that advocacy. Or one side of the approach may eliminate possible solutions that would be acceptable to you and might be beneficial to you overall. Now, what about the requirement of mediation?

Don't look at the requirement as a negative like I have to do this and be grudgingly do it even if you didn't have to do it…

You can look at mediation as a step that can enable a solution Here's why. either way your conflict is going to have some solution. The solution might be you go to court and the judge says you have to do this. It might be a jury saying these are the damages. It might be.

A…

Judgment of facts that…create an obligation for you or the other party to do certain things. Either way your case has kind of come to a conclusion It's not going to hang out there forever You probably don't want it to…

mediation is just one way to navigate to that solution. The advantage of a mediation is it's completely voluntary. If you don't like what the solution is that is proposed or discussed you can walk away from it. You have control over how the information is exchanged in the court. You don't have control.

You have to only put in evidence that's allowed. You have to listen to the other evidence from the other side and you have to let somebody else. decide your fate. Right. We're a mediation.

Eliminates all those negatives. So it may not be. An obstacle or something that begrudgingly you have to do it might be a benefit to you because all of the time that you can avoid. And litigation going to court depositions. discovery.

Testimony expert witnesses, all of those costs money. And your attorney has billable hours. Going into all that. In fact your attorney probably doesn't want to bill all those hours They probably would rather have you settle it. Or mediate it in advance because even though you might think well, billable hours are good.

Those kinds of billable hours are not good for attorneys They don't like having to go to court and hash it out And they would rather do things within their office environment where it's more administrative most attorneys. So look at the mediation as. An opportunity to come up. a mutual, beneficial solution for you. Think about all the anxiety stress, and conflict that have already gone into your case.

From the day that you first discovered there's a conflict for the first day you found out that somebody is going after you or you want to go after somebody else. Think of all the anxiety that have come from that. A court case is going to drag that out months maybe even years. Right. The more you can eliminate that from your attention span and your focus.

The more you can move on to the rest of your life Now what about. You might be thinking I want my day in court. I want my opinions heard. Fine. You can have your opinions heard in mediation In fact, you have the floor to be able to say what's on your mind, right?

And. You might be saying I want my day in court Cause I want to tell the world what happened Fine You can tell the world The difference is if you go to court and you tell the world what's on your mind cause you want it to be public. The other side can tell what's on their mind too. And that's also public. What does it gain you?

Right. You got to say what you want to say They said what they wanted to say You're still gonna have to come up with some solution In fact…

You might be thinking well my case is a slam dunk. The other side thinks their case is a slam dunk too That's why they're in litigation. If they thought they were vulnerable they would have settled or walked away a long time ago. So both parties always think that they're. Cases a slam dunk.

Maybe it is. But if it is the mediation will also flush that out. And you'll have close to the same result as you may have going to court. This is what mediation is for. It's not there to add a burden or add an extra step or to slow you down or cost you more money.

It's designed to take a shortcut to the answer. Court. Litigation is the long way to get to a solution Mediation is the shortcut. I'm sure your attorney will tell you. So whether or not you're in a low level dispute with somebody in your family, maybe a small, small claims court case may be a divorce, may be some type of probate case, maybe a large scale litigation.

Mediation is an opportunity to short circuit, all of the drama, expense, and other problems that go along with litigation There's a lot of side effects you may not be aware of once you get into litigation. That you cannot avoid One is the timeframe It takes a lot longer. And the other is you have to reveal information You have what's called discover your deposition. You may have seen certain high-profile people have to give depositions You have to sit. In a.

Controlled room where the other side's attorney asks you very pointed direct questions. You can't object. It's not like a court where you can say objection your honor I don't want to answer that question. Fifth amendment whatever it is you have to answer the questions in the deposition and. There's no…

Third party intervening with that Your lawyer can't stop it. Once you're in deposition you're done you're along for the ride for that day We've seen depositions We've been in depositions. On our investigative side we've even been expert witnesses and depositions. It's no fun. So there's going to be things about that litigation that.

Are going to be distasteful. And you won't know till afterwards that avoiding it would have been beneficial Even if you are mediation does not come to a conclusion Right At that moment, it may set the stage for a successful settlement later at least you'll know what your options are. And remember you can walk away from mediation. You can't walk away from a court judgment.