In my mediation practice, I think a lot about caucusing. I don’t, however, spend any time wondering whether to caucus; my thoughts are all about how and when to make a successful transition to private meetings with the parties I’m trying to help.

I train law students, graduate students, and lawyers through the mediation program at the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I also mediate and supervise mediations in adoption, child protection, elder guardianship, families in need of services, juvenile, never-married parents, and other custody, probate, and specialeducation cases. These cases typically involve a wide range of family members and the professionals they encounter through administrative processes.

Many of these parties seek mediation because they are unable to communicate or resolve their issues successfully on their own, and they need help reaching a resolution. Whether they will be co-parenting children, caring for an aging parent or relative with their siblings or a stepparent, working out family rules as parents and young adults, or working with court or school personnel to resolve conflicts involving their children, they will also need to interact effectively with one another in the future. One way to help these parties communicate and move toward collaborative solutions is to ask tough questions about their relationship, how they have been communicating in the past, what their role in the conflict has been, and how they would like to see decision-making happen in the future. Thinking about these questions — and answering truthfully — is usually easier for one party if the other is not in the room. If the parties spend the entire mediation in separate rooms, however, they will not learn anything about how to communicate with each other or make decisions collaboratively.

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