“Mediation is a consensual, self-determined process in which participants work together with the facilitation of an impartial, trained third party to address the conflict.”

Mediation provides an opportunity for participants to:

• Clarify issues and interests
• Express feelings
• Explore options
• Be heard
• Craft a voluntary, mutually agreed-upon outcome

Fundamental principles of mediation include:

• Balanced and respectful process
• Confidentiality
• Direct or other meaningful participation
• Impartiality
• Safety
• Self-determination

The main difference between mediation and arbitration is the process used to solve your conflict. Both options will help you solve a legal issue outside of the traditional court process, but they use two different methods to get you from A to Z.

Excellent for parties that have an on-going relationship beyond the mediation, this style of mediation focuses on creating distance between the parties, on the one hand, and the conflict, on the other, through story telling. Once the story is told, the disputants then work with the mediator to create a new story, one that involves agreement and resolution.

The goal of transformative mediation is quite appropriately the transformation of the relationship between the parties. The mediator accomplishes this by focusing on the interactions between the disputants. They facilitate constructive communication by empowering the parties and encouraging recognition of differing points of view.

Evaluative mediation focuses on determining the strengths and weaknesses of the legal issues in a case; anticipating how a judge or jury might respond. The parties can meet separately and the mediator often directly influences the outcome of the mediation.

This style of mediation focuses on the interests and needs of the parties and the role of the mediator as an impartial facilitator. The mediator guides parties through a problem-solving process that focuses on active listening and self-determined solutions. Substantive subject knowledge is not required as these mediators guide the process, not the content of the mediation.