Home
Preparing for Mediation | The Checklists
There are numerous decisions to make as you work your way through a dispute. Whether you are a disputant or a lawyer, these Checklists will assist you to make conflict resolution decisions objectively and in an organized manner. You may not need every Checklist for the dispute that you are dealing with. You will know which ones are applicable. We offer you the right to use a complete set of Checklists on your personal computer. As it takes time to work through the Checklists, we offer them to you for your use for one month.Please click here to register and you will gain access to the checklists.
List of Checklists
Checklist #1: Process Selection
There are six key considerations when deciding what dispute resolution process to use. The answers to the questions listed in this Checklist will point to the right dispute resolution process to use at this time.
Checklist #2: Suitability for Mediation
A dispute may or may not be suitable for mediation at this time. This Checklist identifies criteria for suitability. It also indicates situations that may call for specialized procedural arrangements.
Checklist #3: Public Interest Mediation Suitability
Some disputes involve criminal activities, children in need of protection or misdeeds by professionals. The public has an interest in how these disputes are resolved. Consequently, the issue of whether mediation is suitable is more complex than most other disputes. This Checklist focuses on the special issues that arise when considering whether mediation is appropriate in conflicts where the public has an interest.
Checklist #4: Identifying the Participants
At first blush who needs to be involved in a mediation seems straightforward. However, who participates and the manner of their participation shapes the contents and the durability of settlements reached at mediation. This Checklist helps you to identify who needs to participate.
Checklist #5: Date & Duration
Whether you or an assistant is scheduling the mediation, the questions addressed in this Checklist will assist in selecting an effective date and length for the mediation meeting.
Checklist #6: Location
Some locations will facilitate a productive meeting; others will unnecessarily complicate the meeting and frustrate the participants. This Checklist will identify the location needs of you and the other participants.
Checklist #7: Selecting the Mediator
There are occasions when you are choosing the mediator. By working through this Checklist, you can match your dispute to the mediator’s skills and abilities.
Checklist #8: Dispute Analysis
Completing this Checklist will help lawyers and disputants prepare for mediation. Reflecting on the answers will assist all involved to develop perspective as well as an approach that will lead to more productive discussions and satisfying resolutions.
Checklist #9: Interests & Objectives
Use this Checklist to gain insight into what is motivating you, to make your best guess about what is motivating others who are involved in the dispute, and to brainstorm creative ways to meet all your objectives.
Checklist #10: Goals
What are your goals for the future? This checklist helps you identify your goals according to the type of conflict that you are involved in.
Checklist #11: Data and Information
You need information and data to make good decisions. This Checklist helps you identify what you require. As enduring outcomes are more likely when interests and objectives are applied to data and information, combine this Checklist with Checklist #9.
Checklist #12: Risk Analysis
What are the consequences of not settling your dispute? How will you know what a good settlement looks like? This Checklist assists you to gather the answers to these questions.
Checklist #13: Agreement to Mediate
In some places and for some disputes there are laws that govern your mediation. They may even protect the confidentiality of the negotiations at the mediation. When this is not the case, you need an Agreement to Mediate. This Checklist helps you to select the terms of the Agreement to Mediate.
Checklist #14: Preliminary Conference
Preliminary conferences are pre-mediation meetings that are intended to enhance the process and the outcome of your mediation. They may not be called for and each Preliminary Conference is unique. This Checklist will assist attorneys and disputants to decide whether to request a Preliminary Conference and to design it with the mediator.
Please click here to register and you will gain access to the checklists.
The Author | Deborah Lynn Zutter
An experienced lawyer, Deborah Lynn Zutter has practiced law for over 25 years in Canada. Certified as a Comprehensive Family Law Mediator with Family Mediation Canada, Deborah now practices collaborative law and
mediation in Vancouver, British Columbia.
She is a conflict resolution trainer and frequent public speaker who has taught Mediation at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Law.
An Introduction to the Book
The new 2nd Edition of Preparing For Mediation includes new sections and a new online access to checklists.
To gain FREE ACCESS to the new checklists, please register and login.
Who is Preparing for Mediation for?
Each and every one of us is involved in disputes regularly – at home, at work, as consumers and as volunteers. We tend to approach disputes from the perspective of If we can’t work it out, and I’m not willing to let you get away with what has occurred, I’ll take you to court, or, I’ll get even in some other way.
