The Legitimate Use Of Fear To Encourage Settlement

Do some mediators scaremonger the parties at mediation in the name of reality testing?

Maybe I did yesterday… or did I just disguise it as a legitimate neutral intervention and label it;

1. BATNA, MLATNA, WATNA
2. Shaming (‘well, 90% of people manage to work these things through at mediation…are you really in the 10%?)
3. Becoming evaluative
4. Trivialising differences (‘will you really spend the next two years at war for the amount of difference now between you after a day in mediation?’)
5. Creating doubt in every one’s minds – ‘well, I know how that Judge approaches these kinds of cases…’
6. Threatening parties with what lies ahead of them (costs/2am wake ups)
7. RAA (Robust Risk Analysis)

                       

Geoff Sharp

Geoff Sharp is a Commercial Mediator from Wellington, New Zealand. Geoff works in the Asia Pacific region, including New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Pacific Islands. He is a mediator resolving business problems. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and mediates complex and hotly debated litigation covering… MORE >