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Forty Lines Mediatiors Can Hang Clothes On: No Really! - Chapter 43 - AAA Handbook on Mediation - Third Edition

Author(s): 
Robbie Mac Pherson
Suzanne McSorley
Page Count: 
11 pages
Published: 
April, 2016
Practice Areas: 
Dispute Resolution & Litigation,
ADR,
Mediation,
Mediators
Author Detail: 

Mr. MacPherson practices construction law at Gibbons PC in Newark. He is a Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers and former Chair of the ABA’s Forum on Construction Law.  He is a court-appointed Mediator and serves on the American Arbitration Association’s national roster of construction mediators and arbitrators. He teaches Construction Law at Rutgers Law School, Newark, New Jersey.

Ms. McSorley is a Shareholder in the law firm of Stevens & Lee, PC, practicing construction law and providing service as a Mediation Neutral.  She has served as a Mediator since 1995, and has now mediated hundreds of matters. She is a past Member of the NJ Supreme Court Committee on Complementary Dispute Resolution and its Mediation Advisory Committee. She is active in the ABA Forum Committee on Construction Law, and a frequent speaker on construction law and mediation topics.  She was named the James B. Boskey ADR Practitioner of the Year in 2005.

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Description: 

Originally from:

AAA Handbook on Mediation - Third Edition

FORTY LINES MEDIATORS CAN HANG CLOTHES ON: NO REALLY!

Robbie MacPherson  and Suzanne McSorley

Lines mediators use to extend the impact of their opening statement throughout the mediation.

I. Introduction
Mediators need to be able to encourage the parties to participate more fully in mediation and educate them about the process and do it in a way that the parties can immediately use. How mediators do this requires an understanding of human behavior, an ability to empathize, good oral communication skills and a good sense of the parties and of timing. A mediator needs to be able to say exactly the right thing at the right time. If parties could resolve the dispute themselves, they would.  They wouldn’t need a mediator. The reason they need a mediator is to motivate them in various ways—to actually listen to the adversary’s complaints and hear what the adversary wants from the mediation; to re-examine their own positions; and to think about what they need to move on and resume business as usual. They also need a translator—someone who can restate what they say into language the adversary can hear. In addition, they often need to discourage a party from walking out of the mediation. What do mediators actually say to the parties during mediation? We’re not aware of any compilation of mediator “lines.” So, in what may be the first article of its kind, we offer 40 lines we have used or heard others use over the years to assist parties in getting from mediation what they need, along with some commentary including an explanation of when it might be appropriate to use them yourself and what they have achieved. There is a caveat to this: Good judgment is always required because any statement a mediator makes could be counterproductive if used with the wrong parties or by the wrong mediator or in the wrong way or at the wrong time. So even if we identify particular lines as appropriate for an opening statement, that may not be the case for you or for your parties or for your mediation.