Mediation
Filing a lawsuit and going to trial
is not only costly, but often gets so messy and complicated that
the opposing parties end up paying more in attorney fees as a result
than the rewards and benefits received from the ultimate judgment.
In many cases, the problems that created the conflict in the first
place can often be less expensive and more easily resolved if the
opposing parties commit to working with a neutral professional who
can guide them and work with them to create their own solution to
a problem so that a decision, while perhaps not optimal from the
standpoint of both parties, is certainly fair and reasonable.
Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution
(ADR) where both sides of a dispute meet together with a neutral
professional, who listens to both arguments and tries to work both
sides toward a compromise." Two important things to remember are
that a mediated solution is an option to be accepted or rejected
by the parties and both parties are very active in solving the problem.
By comparison, another form of ADR is "arbitration," which is legally
binding, the parties have far less input in the decision, and the
resolution can often take months or years.
In civil and family court cases, mediation methods are gaining widespread
support. After an agreement, a contract can be drawn up and signed
by both parties at which time it will move quickly through the courts.
For divorce or child custody cases, parents often find it easier
to negotiate a settlement in the interest of all the family members
through mediation, dividing responsibilities and shared property
with a process that allows them more control over the outcome. If
the mediator is called into the conflict early enough, the emotional
costs in a breakup can be much lower than it would be in an adversarial
court setting.
As a state certified mediator for the past 5 years, Ken Holder has
defined his role to specifically help both parties gain a Win-Win
resolution based upon the characteristics of their particular case
and by working off of individually crafted agreements. Most importantly,
Ken believes it is imperative that once the agreement is completed,
both parties must be able to leave the table feeling that all issues
were discussed in detail and the resolution done fairly. This is
where most mediators, particularly court-appointed mediators fail.
By working off of "canned" boilerplate documents, far too many issues
go unaddressed and too often, lead parties back into a dispute because
of weakly written agreements or because certain issues went unnoticed.
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