Mediator is a neutral who facilitates
the development of an agreement; each client obtains the
services of his/her own attorney to review the agreement and advise
before it is signed.
2
Legal advice is built into the entire negotiation.
Mediator cannot give legal advice. One or both
clients may choose to have an attorney for background consultation
during the mediation process.
3
Attorneys and clients participate together in
negotiations; when possible, clients carry the main negotiation and
attorneys act as advisers.
Occasionally, clients choose to have their
attorneys present during the mediation; however, clients will remain
the main participants.
4
Each CL attorney is committed to settlement; the
CL attorneys must withdraw if the case does not settle or if all
discovery (information and documentation) is not voluntarily
forthcoming.
The attorneys that each client hires to complete
the process may encourage settlement rather than litigation but does
not have the same commit-ment to settlement that exists in a
collaborative case.
5
CL attorneys take response-bility for obtaining
all relevant information and documentation and warrant to each other
that they have done so.
The mediator must work with the information and
documentation that clients are willing to produce and has no
leverage to help in obtaining discovery that a client is reluctant
to produce.
6
CL attorneys, unless they are also mediators, are
not trained to assist clients in developing improved communication
skills.
The mediator models communication skills that
assist clients in improving their own communication skills with each
other.
7
In collaborative cases, neutral experts may be
brought in to assist with specific matters; attorneys and clients
agree that there will be no battle of experts.
Clients in mediation may agree upon a neutral
expert but do not share a commitment to avoiding a battle of
experts.
8
CL attorneys carry the agreement forward to
completion of the entire process in the courts.
Mediator cannot complete the process in court;
clients need attorneys to complete the process.
