Colorado Mediation Services
The Madden Firm offers Colorado mediation services for civil disputes, including business, commercial, construction, real estate, insurance, personal injury, professional liability, and other litigation-related matters. Mediations may be conducted virtually, allowing parties and counsel to participate from separate locations while maintaining the structure, confidentiality, and focus of a traditional mediation.
The Mediation Process
Mediations in the past have involved the Parties, their Counsel, and the Mediator all meeting together. They usually included an initial meeting of the participants and their counsel with the mediator to review the Mediation Process, and then a series of separate meetings with the Mediator and the specific Parties together with their counsel. Currently, however, most Mediations are conducted by Virtual Meetings with each group of the Parties located at a computer site of their choice and the mediator coordinating the Mediation from a separate, neutral site. In this respect, the mediator has the capacity to join all of the computer sites together or to communicate individually with each of the groups separately. The Process, however, is the same whether fully held at a central location or virtually held through a group of computer sites.
Pre-Mediation Procedures
The potential for success of any mediation depends on the commitment of the parties to pursue in good faith a resolution of their disputes. This potential for success increases to the extent the Parties and their Counsel provide the mediator with relevant information before the mediation by a submission to the mediator of a Confidential Written Statement. together with limited exhibits such as expert reports and key substantive documents. Madden suggests this information should include, a) information regarding the asserted claims and defenses, the related facts and the parties’ views and goals as to how the disputes between the parties can best be resolved, including what compromises may need to be made by each party, b) the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s case and how they intend to deal with them, including the related legal theories and authorities, c) how they believe the mediator can most effectively be of help in facilitating a resolution of the related disputes and d) the history of any settlement discussions. In some instances, the mediator may have related contact with the Parties’ counsel, either together or separately by telephone, before the first mediation session.
Financial aspects are a driving force of most disputes. To facilitate mediation and to avoid unnecessary time at its beginning, Madden suggests the Plaintiff, or the Party presenting the primary claim, present to the opposing party a written proposal for settlement. This should be done several days before the mediation, with a copy to the mediator, which allows the opposing party to form a good faith response to be presented at the beginning of the first mediation session.