Speaking of "Difficult" Conversations, I recommend reading the book, "Difficult Conversations" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton & Sheila...

“Mediation is the process of facilitating a difficult conversation between two or more people. So there are many lessons” ... Aled...

There are a number of ways to get past this type of perceived impasse. Telling the other side to "change their number" seldom works, and...

The recent unfolding of events involving Chris Dorner, while extremely sad and tragic in so many ways, also highlight an important part...

Fear drives many actions and inactions in a mediation. For example, sometimes defendants request an opening demand from plaintiff before...

Some parties have difficulty giving up their lawsuit. If asked, "Are you ready to settle and put it behind you?" they may answer "yes",...

Fortunately most cases do resolve at mediation, yet sometimes they need time to "percolate". Time allows you to process all the new...

Through the past few busy weeks of mediations, I've accumulated an amalgam of observations, in no particular order: Parties need to be...

This past week 3 cases in mediation settled, cases which even I (the annoying optimist) thought wouldn't settle, at least not then. Two...

How someone feels, becomes strongly ingrained in their perception of reality. Trying to shake away that perception is rarely easy or...