THE ROBING ROOM

I understand the difference between litigation and mediation. Mediation is not a time when the merits of a case get discussed at length. Mediation is there to give the parties an opportunity to agree without going to the time and expense of extensive merits. If you want to argue the legal merits of your case, choose arbitration or the court. Judge Mason did exactly what he was supposed to do: closed the wide gap between the offers on the two sides and then took a more active role once a realistic gap was in play. He covered both sides' positions in the sessions (we went 6 rounds before coming to a settlement), offered professional expertise in terms of the stage of the discussions, managed the process toward a realistic goal by the end of the negotiation session and then secured the final terms. His recommendations to exercise patience, particularly at the beginning, were judicious. I'd select him again, and I believe both sides came out in respectable positions in our mediation. Obviously everyone was frustrated at some point. That is inherent to the process.