Arbitration & Mediation

It's Time to Begin Distinguishing Between Good and Bad Mediation Practice

By Victoria Pynchon

Geoff Sharp over at Mediator Blah Blah cites one of New Zealand's top trial lawyers as saying that mediation "struck him as a 'dishonest kind of process'" explaining:  

At one mediation I attended the mediator, who was the most eminent mediator in Australasia, put a 50c coin on the table and said to the parties, "this coin is like litigation, it could fall on either side."

That absolutely terrified the clients. This man says the chances are 50/50, and he doesn't even know what the case is about yet. I'm uneasy with the idea that the settlement was always the best idea.  

For the full post, click here.

This isn't a criticism of mediation.  This is criticism of a bad mediator.  If we don't develop best practices and standards soon, the practice of mediation will live or die by its weakest practitioners.  And if the majority of the bad practices include mediator bullying and baseless prognostication, I'd predict that the profession is more likely to die than it is to live.  

How about it fellow mediators?  Hasn't the time finally come?

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).