Flexibility

Voluntary

This is a voluntary process. If this process is not meeting your needs, you may leave at anytime. By the way, anything I say in this mediation is an invitation for you to consider and nothing more. I encourage you to use our mediation time to the fullest extent possible to see how far we can go in resolving your conflict.

Neutral

I am not here to represent either side, any particular position. My goal is to assist each of you in reaching an acceptable settlement of this matter. My job is to help the two of you come up with a solution that works for you both. In that role, I strive to be neutral and impartial. If you have any concerns about how the process is going or what I am doing, please let me know so we can discuss it.

Flexibility

I would like to ask you to remain flexible. A good settlement is where each side gives more than you expected.If both sides will do this the best settlement will be achieved and both sides will be satiefied.

5) Before we begin, let me explain the procedure we will use. In a minute each of you will have the opportunity to make an opening statement to describe the problem as you see it. This is just to make the matter clear for us as the Mediators today. You can make notes and these can be discussed later when it’s your turn to have the opportunity to state your views. In keeping with confidentiality all notes will be destroyed after today’s mediation

After that, we will transition into a joint session discussing on possible solutions, I ask that each of you be thinking of how you might like to resolve this matter.

At some point, I will meet with each of you separately. This is called a caucus. I will use the caucus to help me clarify in my mind some concerns I may have as we talk, and to be of more assistance in helping you resolve your dispute. I may use the caucus any number of times, and the length of each caucus should not be of concern to either of you. The information you share during the caucus is also confidential and will not be shared during open discussion unless you specifically give consent to such disclosure.

When you reach agreement, it will be written, and each of you will be asked to verify and sign it. I will also sign it as a witness. Each of you will be provided with a copy of the agreement today.

Additional for co-mediator:

If either party needs to talk to us in private or we feel that a separate meeting with each of you would be helpful we will have private meetings. Everything said during the private meetings are also totally confidential. Having private meetings may help you to speak to us more freely which could then help us to get the discussion back on the right track. We are pleased that you agreed to come to this mediation and we hope that the problem that brings you here today will be resolved. There are no rules except;

We ask that you to respect each other. We’ll try to help you solve this problem in a friendly way. We’re just helping you reach an agreement. Anything said today will remain confidential. This is on a-need-to-know basis and we can’t say anything to anyone else, so feel free to talk. You are all here because you want to sort out your problem.

So mediation is an extremely successfull process. Mediators enjoy more than 80% success rate. So it is important to me to resolve your dispute and to bring peace. I fully expect to get this case settled today.

Are there any questions before we get started? Okay, let’s begin with Mister X since he called the mediator first, if that is OK with you, Mrs X? Mister X, what has brought you here today?