Guided Choice Mediation – A Better Way To Settle Disputes
This post has been viewed 4,358 times.
Despite training by some of the best mediation educators over the last 20 years, it was only fairly recently that I became aware of the name given to the mediation process known as “Guided Choice.” Championed most notably by Paul M. Lurie, Guided Choice Mediation is really a thoughtful organization and bundling of certain practices that together lead to better mediation results. Without an awareness that these concepts had a name, I had through experience gravitated to many of them in my mediation approach. However, it was only upon finding the Guided Choice website and related publications and programs that all the pieces fit together.
Most lawyers and most mediators approach mediation as an event – a one-time meeting of the parties, their lawyers and the mediator at which the mediator facilitates a settlement discussion. More often than not, the parties and their lawyers expect the mediator to listen to their stories and shuttle between the two camps in private “caucuses,” carrying settlement offers and counteroffers. While this process can be productive, it fails to realize the potential that mediation holds for achieving a settlement.
Tags:
