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Category Archives: Front Page Feature

Mediation Prep: Five Essential Considerations
Mediation in Michigan
A surprising number of attorneys and clients begin commercial mediation without having fully prepared beforehand.  Consider a few essential exercises before you draft your mediation summary and sit down at the mediation table:
  1. Thoroughly evaluate your needs, interests, and objectives.  What is your “best alternative to a mediated agreement” or BATMA? If you are already in litigation, this undoubtedly means calculating your likely result at trial.  What are the strengths and...
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WHEN CASE EVALUATION JUST GETS IN THE WAY
Mediation in Michigan
Michigan circuit courts have two principal vehicles for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) -- case evaluation and mediation.  The former is evaluative, the latter facilitative.  Case evaluators impose a settlement number on the parties; mediators help the parties select a number of their own.  What process should come first?
Under MCR 2.410(A), all civil cases are “subject’ to alternative dispute resolution processes unless otherwise provided by statute or court rule.  At any...
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Volunteer vs. Private Mediator: Can’t We Just Get Along?
Mediation in Michigan
Convene a gathering of private, for-pay mediators to discuss the prognosis for their future and their conclusion is likely to be  “guarded.”  Informal mediator surveys and anecdotal evidence suggest that perhaps 20% of private mediators garner 80% of the business.  Some senior lawyers who took 40 hour civil mediation training over the past decade thinking ADR would be the next cottage industry providing a soft retirement landing have dropped out...
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