Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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Master mediator Paul Monicatti, of Impartial Dispute Resolution in Troy, Mich., say that he has “conducted an entire mediation with only the clients present while their lawyers sat in an adjoining conference room just gabbing.”

He also has used crossed caucuses with only clients usually near the end, or at a turning point in the day. He says he has done this many times in personal injury, commercial, and probate disputes.

Paul was asked to travel to London to conduct three days of mediation in a large and complex insurance coverage dispute involving one company and its excess insurer. He recounts, “We dismissed a whole platoon of attorneys halfway through the first day, and proceeded without them for three more days while counsel were sightseeing or doing something else. A tentative settlement in principle was reached, leaving it to the lawyers to work out the details later.”