Joseph Mediation

It can’t hurt.

Of course, reason has to prevail in settlement negotiations, but unless you’re sure you’re at a solid impasse, it doesn’t hurt to ask yourself, Could one more move get me the finality I came for?   Continue reading →

Transitioning from conflict to resolution involves a lot of give and take, not the least of which is the giving and receiving of information.

Although there are circumstances that practically call for someone’s exclusion from settlement discussions, they are exceptional.  Face to face communicating often can not only provide a cathartic (settlement-enabling) opportunity, it can also be most informative.   Continue reading →

Demands – sometimes they’re based on calculated costs, sometimes pure emotion, and sometimes they have nothing to do with the dispute.  For example, I’ve heard them tied to credit card debt, the cost of tuition, and even the price of re-siding one’s house.

Regardless, knowing the basis for the demand (as well as counter-demand) may be one of the most essential ingredients to a satisfying outcome, and mediation provides the opportunity to attain this clarity.

Not only does this serve parties as an anchor in their negotiation, it lets them know Continue reading →

What you know at the start of a mediation session is very different from that at the end.

This is why and when you ought to wait to decide what’s possible.

Parties want the process to be over quickly, but that’s usually antithetical to reaching the best outcome.  Prepare yourselves and/or your clients for the time it takes to mediate;  to give parties the chance to exchange positions (arguments), reason through them, their choices and their consequences, and make well-informed decisions.

Along the way, you should be able to trust that your mediator – a neutral – is working through that reasoning with you.   Continue reading →

It’s one thing to say you’ll let the judge decide.  It’s another to say what is decided.  Still another to agree with it.  Then, even after the gavel comes down, there can be issues over interpretation, appeals, monitoring, compliance, etc.

So, letting someone else decide doesn’t appear to lower risks, but rather may multiply them.

When you consider options to lower risks, consider the sense mediated agreements make. Continue reading →