Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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This article, adapted from “How Mediation Works: Theory, Research, and Practice,” published earlier this year by Emerald Insight, is intended in part for a traditional audience of mediators, aspiring mediators, and lawyers. But the book also aimed at a broader audience, including the increasing number of disputants who have been directed or encouraged to mediate by judges or lawyers, yet know little or nothing about it.

The book relies on the combined mediation experience of all the authors to ensure that the book is technically sound. “How Mediation Works” is written in plain English, not legalese—it’s short, but sufficiently comprehensive to serve as the central text in a mediation training program, or as supplemental reading in a law or business school negotiation or dispute resolution class.

Below is an examination of what happens when a mediation runs aground—from the book’s Chapter 4, “Dealing with Difficulties.” In the book, the gender of the mediator is alternated by chapter, with masculine in one chapter, feminine in the next. Here, the terms shift.