Contract and Lawsuit Mediation Work

Over the last twenty years, Mark has been retained by plaintiffs, defendants and their attorneys involved in lawsuits to try to help them resolve their issues to avoid having to go to court for resolution.  These many cases have involved a wide variety of issues: sale and dissolution of businesses, liability between neighbors, wages in employer-employee lawsuits, possession of property, default on loans (up to nearly $3 million), equipment and property leasing, partnership dissolutions, contractor – sub contractor disputes, real estate disputes (sales, earnest money, security deposits, etc.), automobile purchases, partial performance on contracts, and other miscellaneous disputes.  Seventy-five percent of these cases resulted in written settlement agreements which were typically submitted to the court for resolution.

Some key elements to take away from this summary are:

  1. Versatility: Mark can apply the basic mediation process to a wide variety of situations.  The mediator is an expert in the conflict resolution process, using it to help parties reach agreement, no matter what the context of the disagreement.  Recognizing that the parties at the table are the true experts on the problem at hand and being able to use their expertise to find solutions to that problem is a major source of success in mediation.
  2. Effectiveness: The parties to these cases walked away with a win-win agreement three out of every four times.
  3. Empowerment: The parties and their attorneys made their own decisions on what was best for them.  The resulting written agreements incorporated their needs, their ideas and their aspirations – not those of an outside decision-maker like a judge or arbitrator.
  4. Satisfaction: Attorneys who have participated in mediation with Mark continue to recruit him time and time again because of the effectiveness of his mediation skills.
  5. Speed of resolution: Plaintiffs and defendants often wait months, or even years, to actually get to court, continuing to pile up legal fees and costs related to the non-resolution of their legal dispute.  Mediation was made available to all of the parties to these cases in a matter of days or, at most weeks.  Time is money, and mediation saves both!

People will continue to bring each other to court.  Mark remains willing and available to bring his experience and skills to help them resolve their issues quickly, effectively and at a reasonable cost.