Alabama Mediator: Is Mediator’s Proposal a Last Resort?
My Upchurch Watson White & Max colleagues and I recently discussed the concept of a Mediator’s Proposal (MP), which gave me the opportunity to lay out my position on this mediation tool. For me, the polestars for the mediation process generally are mutuality and self determination. From beginning to end, we are facilitating the process to accommodate the positions of the parties with the need to achieve a mutuality through self determination. So too it is with an MP – will both sides accept the concept? And, if so, will both sides accept the amount, range or other concept that makes up the MP?
Nationally Known Mediator Uses Baseball Metaphor for Mutuality
The healthiest way to determine home plate is for the parties to negotiate toward it. The good faith negotiating that brings the parties to the ballpark can, likewise, bring them home. The key to this negotiation is mutuality, and the give and take of negotiation creates that sense of mutuality. Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as “reciprocation; interchange. An act by each of two parties; and acting in return.” Where parties act with mutuality, they are able to not only interchange and reciprocate, but also resolve. They can “trot home.”
