Mapping Mediation: The Risks of Riskin's Grid

Abstract

The article responds to a grid created by Leonard Riskin to describe mediator orientations. As Riskin’s Grid indicates, many mediators in practice evaluate the fair or likely court outcome when necessary to move forward on a particular issue or on the entire dispute. While this article addresses the dangers of such evaluations if characterized as mediation, in certain instances "mixed' evaluative and facilitative processes nonetheless can prove useful. The article asserts that evaluations by a neutral should not be called "mediation" and that sufficient time exists to remap mediation, particularly in the context of current efforts to regulate the profession. Moreover, the article argues that maps of the mediation process should outline a paradigm that sharply differs from the adjudicative norm, a paradigm that has party self-determination, rather than intervener evaluation and direction, as its primary value.

Keywords: Mediation, ADR, Dispute Resolution, Riskin’s Grid, Evaluative Mediation, Facilitative Mediation, Leonard Riskin