{3 minutes to read} So how long does a personal injury mediation take? You will probably find this surprising, but it depends.
Personal injury cases come in many, many different sizes. There are fender benders with bruises, class actions, medical malpractice cases (many different sizes there, too), “minor” injuries, major ones, in-between ones. And of course there are damages, which often determine the length of litigation and of a mediation.
{4 minutes to read} This is the third of four blog posts about how long a mediation should be expected to take. Spoiler alert: The answer for each is “It Depends.” The first two blogs addressed commercial and divorce mediations. This one will address employment mediations.
Employment mediations often have something in common with divorce mediations. The parties have had an ongoing relationship that has fizzled. There is almost always anger and resentment from the plaintiff/former employee, and even from the employer, who typically feels its actions were justified. Think of the spouse who initiates the divorce as the employer and the spouse who wants to remain married as the employee. Like marriages, employers and employees often stay connected even after the relationship has soured.
{4:30 minutes to read} One question I always get whenever someone calls about a divorce mediation is, “How long does it usually take?” The “It depends” answer to this one is far more accurate than in most other mediations.
Many non-divorce mediations take a full day. There is something about participants getting tired and it getting dark that stimulates movement. No one wants to leave after 8, 10, or 12 hours with nothing to show for it.
In divorce mediations, a similar process plays out, but never in one day. And single sessions rarely go over two hours. Couples get exhausted by that point. Plus they need to reflect on and sometimes even live with issues, emotions, and possible decisions.
{3:30 minutes to read} Someone recently asked me how long I would expect a mediation to take. I thought hard for two or three milliseconds and said, “It depends.”
So, how long should one expect a mediation to take? I’m glad you asked. I’ll address different areas of mediation length over the next few blog posts, but let’s start with a commercial case.
{3:30 minutes to read} I recently had a conversation with two attorneys in an employment matter that came my way through a court annexed mediation program that automatically sends all employment cases to mediation.
I have written before about the benefits of
“mandatory mediation,” which until somewhat recently was often thought of as an oxymoron. One axiom of mediation has been that the parties are in charge of the process, including the decision whether or not to mediate. However, it turns out this theory has some flaws. The most serious is that many litigants would love to try to resolve their cases early on, but don’t want to make the first move in suggesting mediation for fear it will be a sign of weakness.
{4 minutes to read} Breakin’ up is not just hard to do—it’s often expensive. But for the past 75 years or so, alimony has been deductible for the payor and income to the payee. This often helped soften the economic fallout of divorce by allowing the higher-earning spouse to pay alimony to the lower-earning spouse so the “family” could reduce its overall tax burden. Since child support is neither income nor deductible, couples often agreed to allocate more money to alimony and less to child support to increase the overall pot available to the family post divorce.
{4:30 minutes to read} A friend recently told me about a situation involving her neighbor at the condo development where she lives. She and the neighbor were never close friends, but they were friendly toward each other, saying hello and chatting when they would see one another.
About a year ago, however, things began to change. The flowers my friend had planted in her front yard for several years were now not to her neighbor’s liking. And the awning that provided shade on the rear of my friend’s unit, which faces west and can get hot in the summer, was suddenly a violation of the condo rules. The awning had been up for about seven years.
{3:54 minutes to read} Our mental attics can store lots of emotional content when it comes to a family home. For 
many families, selling that home may be sad, but not otherwise a source of contention. It can even be a relief. But for others, selling the home can create conflict. While there can be an almost infinite source of such conflicts, mediation can provide a way to ease or even resolve them.
Money and emotion are almost always intertwined in a dispute over the family home, and any attempt at resolution must address both. Ideally, the issue is addressed before a dispute arises:
{3:42 minutes to read} In my previous blog post on this topic, I described some of the general issues that arise 
during a mediation involving an intra-family commercial dispute. These included: