How Can Courts – Practically for Free – Help Parties Prepare for Mediation Sessions?

Abstract

If everyone is well prepared before a mediation session, the process is likely to achieve the parties’ goals and reduce time that courts spend managing and trying cases. Before mediation sessions begin, parties should understand their cases and the potential mediation procedures and they should make some decisions. Without incurring substantial additional costs, courts can undertake initiatives to help parties, attorneys, and mediators prepare for mediation sessions. This would involve courts reviewing and revising their rules, policies, and publications, which are activities that courts routinely do.

To assess federal district courts’ efforts to promote preparation before mediation sessions, this article analyzes information on the websites of all 94 federal district courts. The article offers recommendations for courts, including using mediation process labels similar to nutrition labels on grocery products. It highlights praiseworthy provisions and materials from some courts that other courts may want to use or adapt. It discusses the implications of this study for real practice systems theory.

Although this article focuses on court-connected mediation in federal district courts, the same general principles can be applied in other mediations, including those sponsored by other courts and organizations. It includes an extensive appendix collecting publications, videos, website materials, and technological materials that parties, attorneys, and mediators can use to make mediations as effective as possible.

Keywords: mediation, court-connected mediation, preparation, dispute system design, real practice systems, federal courts, technology