What are the differences between the courtroom process and mediation?
The courtroom is a dicey place. The higher the stakes, the greater the impetus to reach a negotiated settlement and avoid the uncertainty of the courtroom. In a courtroom, the adversarial process focuses on logic and reason in determining the facts and how to interpret them. Emotional issues are filtered out of the discussion. In real life, though, those emotional issues color the way we perceive and make sense of those facts. Sometimes an airing of emotions is critical before the parties can even begin to reason with each other. In mediation, I can help create a safe place for people to have the difficult emotional conversations that they have been unable or unwilling to have with each other.
