Robert Wildau NewSouth Mediation Services

Lawyers & Mediation

Mediation can be a way for parties who are not comfortable with lawyers to resolve disputes without involving them. But advice from an attorney is usually helpful:

To help you define your goals and alternatives

To advise or coach you during negotiations

To make sure, before you sign it, that your agreement says what you intend.

The attorney-client relationship is rarely simple. Lawyers are trained to be aggressive in setting the agenda at the start of a case. Sometimes clients think that assertiveness inflames the situation for no reason. They may find their lawyer over-protective, but hesitate to come out and say so for fear of insulting her or weakening her commitment to their case.

Normally lawyers and mediators are equally concerned about meeting the client’s needs, but their functions are different. Sometimes it takes a lawyer to file a lawsuit so the client can learn the true facts and therefore define his goals. But mediation at an early stage can help parties look at the case with fresh eyes, before they get too committed to their positions. And mediation can often bring a party to accept a reality that her own lawyer couldn’t make her understand – that her goals just aren’t realistic.

Mediation is always an opportunity to advance one's cause, if not to settle the case then to learn more about the other parties' interests. Hearing the other party's story from his or her own mouth is crucial to being able to assess the strength of your own. That's why a lawyer should always prepare her client to participate in mediation and to be ready to make decisions if the opportunity comes up. If the parties don't find common ground and settle their case, they will be better prepared to proceed to trial and confident that they have explored every option.

No party or lawyer who has been through mediation at NewSouth goes away without feeling heard and having a clear understanding of what is at stake in their case. The goal of mediation is always to reach agreements that parties will voluntarily live up to. But any agreement must also be clear and definite enough to be enforceable by law if necessary.

The NewSouth neutral records a memorandum of agreement on a laptop computer, and prints it out in easy-to-understand language that covers every important point. If lawyers are involved, it's easy for them to put the memorandum into final form without further argument.

This site managed with Dynamic Website Technology from Mediate.com
Products and Services
InstantAssist.com Conflict Consultation