Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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In commercial mediations, the path to settlement is often a winding road, replete with switchbacks, hairpin turns, and giant potholes. Navigating such a path requires flexibility on the part of the mediator, counsel and the parties.

Many of the obstacles in such a journey are emotional, and this can be true even in those business cases where the legal and factual issues are dry as dust. And in some cases, the emotional intensity arises not from the underlying dispute but instead from the secondary conflict that arises because of grievances about the other side’s bargaining behavior.

A recent mediation exhibited all of these obstacles and then some.