The Role Of The Mediator

The Profession of Mediation has been around for a number of years; and, it is becoming a more popular method among litigants for seeking resolution regarding their disputes, disagreements and conflicts. Furthermore, one of the main reason that is driving the popularity of Professional Mediation is that, our society is on the continuum of becoming more of a litigious society and the court systems in our country are finding it more challenging to keep up with the pace of cases that are being filed; and, also challenged for hearing these cases in a timely manner for acquiring the necessary resolutions for their litigants.

The role of the mediator is energetic and contains a number of first and foremost points, such as: the mediator is to serve as the facilitator and allow the disputants to come to an amicable agreement; the mediator may have empathy for one side or both sides; however the mediator’s position should always be to maintain neutrality and never show any bias during the mediation process. The mediator is a neutral third party; and should never advocate for either party. It should also be noted, for example, that unless specified by the party members of the mediation process, conversations said during the caucus session should not be discussed, as the process of mediation is confidential and should not be shared with those who were not a part of the mediation process, unless the individual has settlement responsibilities. However, as required by law, should there be threats of imminent harm to others, child abuse or admissions of criminal activities be disclosed during the mediation process, the necessary authorities will be notified.

The mediation session should be held in a safe environment, where individuals are given a platform to be heard, thus allowing them to put all of the reasons they are in the mediation process on the table for understanding, clarification, opening up good bantering sessions between the disputants, in hopes of coming to an amicable resolution.