Mediator Helper will produce draft awards that show how a decision-maker could decide against each party. The awards are not predictions; they are possible decisions and reasons, based on the material supplied to Mediator Helper. No independent research is conducted by Mediator Helper.
The mediator can decide during the mediation whether and when to share the draft awards with parties. Mediators have found it most effective to only share with a party an award that finds against that party. The mediator explains that the mediator has prepared draft awards against each party, and is sharing one such award with that party so that the party can see the reasoning that a judge (or arbitrator) might use to find against them. The mediator then leaves the party and lawyer(s) alone to review the draft award and discuss it with each other (and later with the mediator if the party or lawyer wants to have a discussion about it with the mediator).
Parties are sometimes persuaded more by seeing a reasoned award finding against them than they are by simply having the mediator discuss the risk that the party may be unsuccessful in their dispute. Mediators have found that sharing the draft awards can result in parties making concessions that they had previously been unwilling to make.
Most mediators don’t share the draft awards until late in the process, when other (more traditional) techniques have not resulted in a settlement, but the mediator can choose to share the awards at any stage of the mediation.
Parties will sometimes ask the mediator to confirm that they will share with the other parties awards that find against those other parties.
If a party asks to also see an award finding for it, mediators usually tell the party that they will only share such an award if the case settles. The reason for not disclosing to the party a reasoned award that finds for it is that the mediator does not want to help that party frame its arguments better, or think of new arguments that it has not considered.
The draft awards are based on the material provided to Mediator Helper. They are illustrative and not binding. No party sees an award unless the mediator shares it with the party.
Questions: info@mediatorhelper.com