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What is Mediation?
Mediation is a confidential, voluntary and cooperative process in
which an unbiased third-party (a Mediator) promotes communication and
negotiation between participants to support the resolution of
conflict and/or the development of formal or informal agreements.
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What is Litigation?
Litigation is a legal contest by judicial process of two or more
parties in dispute. Each party usually retains a separate Lawyer to
advocate for them to resolve all aspects of the dispute. As an
alternative to Litigation, Mediation provides an informal but
structured process for disputants to resolve their own conflict more
cost effectively without the uncertainties and delays of the
court.
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What does a Mediator do?
A Mediator actively listens to all parties in the dispute, gathers
information, bridges differences, promotes communication, fosters
understanding, supports creative option development and ensures a
fair negotiation forum to nurture an optimum agreement.
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How effective is Mediation?
Mediation is upwards to 90% effective at resolving conflicts and/or
developing verbal or written agreements especially for divorcing
couples, families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, consumers,
contractors and businesses since it is often very important to
maintain or improve the relationship.
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Are mediations confidential?
Yes. Statements made by the clients during the mediation process are
private and confidential as stated in the Agreement of Understanding signed
by all parties prior to mediation. Mediators are also bound by
confidentiality and are not able to testify in court regarding any
statements made during mediation except in the event of child abuse
or criminal actions in which case the Mediator has a legal duty to
inform authorities.
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How long does mediation take?
The duration of mediation is dependent upon the type of mediation, the complexity of the dispute, the number of parties involved and the flexibility and determination of all parties to meet and negotiate.
For example, mediating a divorce agreement could take as little as three to four sessions or as many as six to eight sessions depending upon the complexity of financial and personal issues, whether or not there are minor children involved and the commitment and determination of both parties to meet and negotiate.
There are many conflicts that are typically resolved within one or two hours of mediation such as contractor / homeowner conflicts regarding cost, workmanship, schedule or payment and neighbor conflicts regarding boundary, noise or interpersonal issues and landlord / tenant issues such as maintenance, security deposit returns, etc.
Mediation is an effective process to help resolve conflicts in all professional and personal areas of life and each conflict drives its' own unique timeline. A major benefit of Mediation is that participants can move through the process as rapidly as acceptable to all parties involved.
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Is mediation less expensive than litigation?
Mediation is usually less than half the cost of litigation for all practice
areas with Mosaic Mediation.
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Are mediated agreements binding?
Mediated agreements range from a simple hand shake to a legally
binding written agreement that is signed by all parties. The type of
agreement required is determined by the participants.
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What qualifications should I look for?
To ensure qualified divorce mediation services in New Hampshire,
validate that your mediator is a state certified Marital Mediator. A
listing of certified Marital Mediators is found at
www.nh.gov/marital. Please note that Elizabeth Christensen of Mosaic
Mediation is on the state certified list of marital mediators.
For all other areas of mediation practice that are not regulated by
the state, ensure that your Mediator has more than 120 hours of
mediation training and applicable experience with more than 100
mediation clients.
Given that there is currently no national licensure requirement for
mediators, it is very important to question the qualifications of a
prospective mediator. Please see the Mediator Profile section for
more information.
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Does a Mediator have to be a Lawyer?
No. Mediators come to the field of mediation with different
backgrounds including the legal field, psychology, social work,
business or therapy. No matter which field the mediator comes from,
all mediators must be trained to mediate as mediation requires a very
different skill set than litigation, counseling, management or
psychotherapy.
When lawyers are practicing mediation, they are not allowed to give
legal advice to both sides as it is against their ethical code of
conduct as an attorney and against the Model Standards of Mediation
Practice. The role of all mediators is to ensure that the parties are
making informed decisions therefore the parties may need to resource
exterior professionals such as an Engineer, a Realtor, a Financial
Advisor or their own respective Attorney. The major benefit of
mediation is that it streamlines the use of costly professional
resources.
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How does the mediation process work?
The process is flexible to meet individual needs therefore the
process does vary from one client to the next. In general, the
process includes an initial consultation to address administrative
efforts and respond to all participant questions, a private session
where the participants have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with
the Mediator to discuss personal interests confidentially and as many
joint sessions as necessary to provide each participant the equal
opportunity to explain the dispute from his or her perspective to the
other party, communicate, negotiate and develop an agreement or
resolution that is fair to both parties involved.
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Will I need other professionals during mediation?
The mediator structures the mediation process so that the
participants make decisions based on sufficient information and
knowledge. Depending upon the nature of the mediation, parties may
need to resource an Engineer, a Lawyer, a Realtor or a Financial
Advisor in order to make an informed decision. Mediation streamlines
the use of necessary professional resources to effectively save you
time and money.
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What if I start mediation then decide that I don't want to
continue?
Mediating with Mosaic Mediation is completely voluntary therefore you
are free to discontinue or reactivate participation at any time.
Please note that there is no charge for sessions cancelled 48 or more
hours prior to the session. Participants that cancel within 48 hours
of their scheduled session will be charged for the cost of the
scheduled session. Session 'No Shows' will also be charged
100% of the cost of the session.
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What kind of disputes does Mosaic Mediation provide services for?
Mosaic Mediation provides six areas of mediation services including
Marriage and Divorce, Organizations and Business, State / Federal
Contracts, Alternative Communications, Interpersonal Relationships
and Construction and Property.
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Does Mosaic Mediation provide on-line or teleconferencing
mediation?
Yes. On-line and teleconferencing mediation is an excellent
alternative to meeting face-to-face for individuals that are unable
to leave their home, are geographically separated or simply prefer to
mediate in the privacy and comfort of their own home or office.
Please refer to the Alternative Communications Methods section for
more details.
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How does the U.S. Government and Corporate America use Mediation?
The U.S. Government passed the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act
of 1990 which required each federal agency to establish an ADR policy
and create internal ADR training programs. Since then, many
departments have not only developed the program but have also
implemented and tracked exciting success rate statistics for
mediation. For example, the Department of Labor enacted Mediation as
an alternative dispute resolution process for grant, contract and
equal opportunity disputes and the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission supports the use of mediation to resolve federal
discrimination cases.
During the past few years, many Fortune 500 companies have followed
the government's lead in developing and implementing Alternative
Dispute Resolution programs to reduce outrageous expenses, long
delays, physical and emotional stress of employees and uncertainties
involved with litigation. At this time, the use of Mediation as an
alternative to adjudication is spreading quickly to smaller
businesses and the private sector throughout the country.
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