INTRODUCTION
Good morning, everyone. A very warm welcome to your mediation session. Thank you for
joining us here today. I am Harkirat, I’ll be your mediator for this session. My preferred
pronouns are she/her. I have an experience of 5 years in mediation, and I hope I will be able
to help you and put my best foot forward. I along with my co mediator___ would be joining
you as mediators here today. If my co mediator could take a minute to introduce themselves.
Before we could begin, it would be great if we could have a quick round of introductions,
your names, and your preferred pronouns.
It would be great if you could confirm your authority to make decisions and representations.
Alright we will start with the requesting party.
Thank you so much for that warm welcome. My name is tina and my preferred pronouns are
she/her. I welcome you to your mediation session. I have an experience of 7 years in
mediation, and I hope I will be able to help you and put my best foot forward. Before we
could begin, it would be great if we could have a quick round of introductions, your names,
and your preferred pronouns. Also, it would be great if you could confirm your authority to
make decisions and representations. Alright we will start with the requesting party.
Thank you & counsel if the responding party could please go ahead.
Thank you so much.
PROCESS
Have the parties been to a mediation session before?
Mediation is a voluntary process; you have chosen this process to reach an amicable
solution.
It is flexible, you can either choose to disclose certain facts or just remain silent. It is the most
unique feature as it is party driven process.
Please consider us as your non-partisan mutual friends who are trying to help you negotiate
and mend your relations on the principle of neutrality.
I my years of experience I have come to realize that this is a transparent process and will be
most effective when the parties speak honestly and in good faith.
The most important aspect of mediation is confidentiality. We assure the parties that
whatever said in this room stays in this room and all transcripts and notes will be erased out
of the records if required by the parties. Please keep in mind that anything said in the
mediation is not enforceable in the court of law.
I hope the parties have heard about private session called CAUCUS where the private
parties disclose certain information to the mediators which they are not comfortable in
sharing with everyone in the room. Everything said by the parties is confidential even to the
other party unless expressly given permission to reveal the information.
Steps in the process of mediation- firstly there are no ground rules to mediation. It is on
the foundation of consensus. Hence, I will not call it ground rules. However, there are
certain reasonable expectations which are required to ensure that the process is fruitful.
Patience and courtesy- listen to each other don’t speak over each other.
1. Opening statements-
We will start with the opening statements. It is always easy to read files and papers about the
dispute however mutual trust and relationship are built when the personal note is touched by
the parties- why are you in this session today, what do you seek to achieve by this mediation?
2. information gathering
3. evaluating options
4. contract settlement
We will start with the opening statements.
summarize
SETTING THE AGENDA- common statements consider the most important issues
first.
Intervene at the right time. Technical terms. Do not unnecessarily interrupt.
Closing statements- irrespective of how we started, but now we have covered a lot of
ground.
Positive end- in my years of experience this has been the most fruitful mediation session.
However, since all disputes cannot be parallelly resolved and some issues might take more
time and effort than others so is the case in our situation. I hope the parties will reach an
amicable solution in the further mediation. On a positive note, we have reached a consensus
on-------issues.
Negative end- parties- thank you parties for attending and having an accommodating
session today. Since the disputes takes their own time to reach a consensus, I request the
parties to trust the process and continue to mediate and resolve the issue amicably.