Insurance expert witness Guy Kornblum is author of Do Lawyers Really Understand What They Need to Do to Prepare For Mediation? After a recent Mediation Roundtable, here are Kornblum’s thoughts concerning mediation:
What I heard shocked me: Lawyers don’t know how to prepare for a mediation, and most of the lawyers who attend mediations just are not doing a very good job. The mediators all explained the hurdles they had to overcome. (Their chief complaints were listed at https://www.expertwitnessblog.com 7/7/08 & 7/14/08)….
Since courts are sending many cases to mediation and parties seem more interested in participating, we need to be more mindful that clients need to be educated from day one about this important part of the litigation mechanism. While many courts require lawyers to inform their clients about this process at the outset, it seems that at least my mediator colleagues believe we need to pay more attention to, involve and educate our clients, and make this a part of the ongoing discussion of the case.
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