We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ ADR Providers?

It wasn’t actually John Huston’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles — where he parodies the scene above — in which the bandits famously said “we don’t need no stinkin’ badges.”

Are we just as confused about the role played by mediation providers?

This is what you hear from litigators:

I don’t hire a mediation provider, I hire a mediator.

This is what you hear from mediators:

People don’t hire me because I’m on the JAMS or ADR Services or Judicate West panels.  People hire me because they know me.

And yet, we are on ADR provider panels and they do provide us with business just as we provide them with our “book.”

I’m not going to deconstruct the misconceptions here, only to provide you with an excerpt from the address given by Elizabeth Birch transcribed here — Meditation Providers No Longer Add Value — courtesy of Geoff Sharp and The Political News You Need to Know.

It provides just a few of the reasons you might want to call my ADR provider, and that of my colleagues Jay McCauley, Michael Young, and John Wagner, at Judicate West, the next time you want to schedule a mediation or arbitration.

Administration

Now, here is the nub of the problem. Many of you feel that you don’t need your mediations administered … “I can do that myself. Why should I let a Mediation Provider take some of the mediation money, if I can do it myself?”

                       

Victoria Pynchon

Attorney-mediator Victoria Pynchon is a panelist with ADR Services, Inc. Ms. Pynchon was awarded her LL.M Degree in Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute in May of 2006, after 25 years of complex commercial litigation practice, with sub-specialties in intellectual property, securities fraud, antitrust, insurance coverage, consumer class actions and all… MORE >