Most lawyers would say, if asked, that the difference between mediation and a judicial settlement conference is about five hours: Judges tend to schedule settlement conferences to two-hour sessions and mediations tend to take all day. This is true. But the reason it is true is that mediation is a fundamentally different process from a judge-directed settlement, and that different process takes time to unfold.
One way to illuminate the difference between settlement conferences and mediation is to articulate the different roles mediators play: Neutral Evaluator, Agent of Reality, Active Listener, Disputant’s Confidante, Negotiating Coach, Creative Problem Solver, and Trusted Advisor. Settlement judges do some of these things, too, but their institutional role as judges constrains them from doing others. Even if judges gave more time to conducting a settlement conference, it would not be like a mediation.
