What are the 5 stages of mediation? Let’s take a look. Jim and John had been successful design partners for six years. The business had grown from the two of them to twelve engineers. Now Jim wanted to accept an acquisition offer, but John wanted to expand while they could buy new buildings cheaply. If …
When people are in conflict, they can choose either conflict resolution or conflict management. While some people see the two options as the same, they are actually different processes that can shape the way conflict is dealt with and if it is resolved. The two processes have different objectives and will often achieve different outcomes …
Occasionally, a court will recommend an early neutral evaluation shortly after a case has been filed. Courts will usually recommend this when they believe an evaluation may help the parties accurately see their positions compared to the other party’s and potentially think about a settlement. Sometimes, a court will recommend the case to early …
Famed psychologist Paul Ekman calls anger one of the six basic emotions. He notes that its expression is universal across cultures. Even as infants, we instinctively recognize and react to its presence in those around us. According to Ekman, anger originates when an important goal is frustrated, or someone tries to hurt us or someone we feel responsible for, physically or psychologically. Under this definition, anger is a response to threatening external stimuli, which is often accompanied by a desire to hurt the source of the anger producing events.
Conflict is a normal and natural part of human interaction, in the workplace and everywhere else. Generally, the short-term cost of resolving conflict is negligible compared to the cost of leaving conflicts unresolved. Learn how to deal with difficult people at work to effectively resolve conflict.
There may come a time in a marriage where a couple contemplates getting a divorce. There are several options and factors to keep in mind for those considering a divorce or legal separation.
One of the things I enjoy most about my job as a mediator is the flexibility inherent in the mediation process I utilize. Typically, I’m assuming, you see mediation as a process where you can confidently come together with other parties involved in litigation, call a timeout, and determine if the parties can reach an agreement to resolve the case. This is how I’m asked to lead mediations about 95% of the time. However, there are other circumstances in which I’ve been hired as a mediator, some of which may surprise you.
Mediation briefs should be shared well before the mediation session: to save time in session; to give each side the full force of the other’s positions; to give each side time to carefully consider the other’s positions and calmly prepare a response; to begin establishing the settlement ballpark. Let’s consider the alternatives, their bases, and their effects.
James F. Ring and some colleagues gave a fascinating talk at the recent ABA Dispute Resolution Section on Game Theory; Where it started was cutting a cake; Where it ended was cutting out the lawyers, at least by implication.
The companion provision to mediation confidentiality is the mediation privilege, which makes evidence of mediation communications inadmissible in future legal proceedings. As with the confidentiality provisions discussed above, local laws are a crazy quilt, with only about half the states having adopted the UMA or similar provisions. The federal courts are even more inconsistent.