If negotiating a settlement doesn’t work, mediation can be chosen. The mediation process is simply the attorneys for the parties agreeing on a mediator who is a lawyer and skilled or trained in mediation. They go to that person’s office, sit in separate rooms with their attorney and the mediator will go back and forth trying to broker a deal. The mediator is not a judge. They do not decide if you are right and the other person is wrong, and you win and they lose; they simply try to get both sides to inch closer together in order to make an agreement and finish the case.
Mediators use the fact as leverage that they usually have a pretty good understanding of your particular judge and how that person thinks or acts. They have experience in the area and they will explain to you as an objective person the strengths or weaknesses of your argument and also the costs that you have to save by not going to trial because the trial process is very expensive. A lot of times, the money that you’re saving can be used in the negotiation process and that way, the parties keep the money rather than the lawyers ending up with the money. So, it’s a pretty effective process if people want the case to resolve, it would usually resolve.
