Communication, setting the expectations because if your expectation is, let’s say the disputes over a $400,000.00 issue and you expect to be paid no less than $400,000.00 it’s going to be very difficult for that mediation to be a success. But if you have an attorney who has experience, has been through the process, been through similar scenarios and can give you objective assessment you have a 50 percent chance of success, so forth. Knowing your chances of success in an objective manner and then having a good mediator that really increases the changes. There is people who advertise and say they do mediations, just because they do them and have done 400 doesn’t mean they’re necessarily good ones. What’s their rate of resolving them?

And just because a case doesn’t settle right during the mediation that doesn’t mean that you had a poor mediator or was a poor case, a poor timing of mediation it just means that the progress was made to get to a point and I’ve mediated cases where the parties seemed to be just at loggerheads. I got them within $50,000.00 it seems like they’re still pretty far apart. A week later, the attorney called and said we got it done and your efforts were ultimately successful. You maybe didn’t complete the mediation on the day of but it was very worthwhile going through it.

And even if it doesn’t settle it can be a successful mediation if you get that assessment from that mediator, that third party who is saying, you know, you have to understand you can lose this case. But the other sides not going to take less than $300,000.00 and there’s no way that you can pay more than 250 or 200 then at least you’ve gone through that process. That’s why I say most mediations should be successful whether they settle the case or not because if you’ve done your preparation and if you have a solid mediator and an attorney who has set the right expectations for the client.