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Where resolution should always be the ultimate goal, early or presuit mediation may serve a vital role as a vehicle for exploring settlement in high stakes cases such as medical malpractice and nursing home litigation, where protracted costs can be avoided by all parties.
Gregory Parent (Courtesy photo)
Regardless of when a case is mediated, even jaded skeptics should come to the negotiation table with a plan and pathway toward resolution, especially when such an outcome seems unlikely. Often the process of mediation causes shifts in strategy by one or more parties. When those parties, who never contemplated seeing things differently, do not have a plan to move forward, mediations stall out. Fortunately, even in those situations, the mediation process usually provides a strong foundation of trust which may allow the neutral to capitalize on continued settlement negotiations further down the road.
