Mediation Services in Texarkana, Texas

There are two primary means of resolving legal disputes, one is by litigation in a court room, including all the time, costs, fees and emotional toil that comes with it while their cases proceed to a final judgment, either by a judge or a jury.

The second, and more frequent means of resolving a case is through mediation. A mediator acts as a neutral and impartial assistant to help litigating parties reach an agreement on their case. If mediation or settlement fails, the only alternative left is to turn your case over to a third party, whether it be a judge or a jury, who then decides your case for you. Thus, there are lots of benefits to mediation, and in fact, most judges order or encourage mediation before a case goes to trial.

Even if mediation does not result in a settlement of all the legal issues, it often can narrow the issues to be addressed at the trial thereby streamlining the case and making it less costly overall to try. Unlike a judge, the mediator cannot determine the outcome of a case nor can he or she force the parties to accept a resolution. Instead, the decision to settle a case remains solely in the control of the parties. The mediator typically confides with each party in separate caucuses and obtains information that he can help guide the parties to resolution. The information obtained from each party remains confidential with the mediator and is not shared with anyone else unless the party has given the mediator permission to share the information. This enables the mediator to develop strategies for helping the parties settle which they might not have realized because they were unaware of information in possession of the other party.

Mediation can be useful in all sorts of matters, including:

• Divorce

• Custody and Family Law matters

• Personal Injury cases

• Business Disputes

• Real Estate Disputes

• Breach of Contracts.
  

If the case is successfully resolved, then a mediated settlement agreement is prepared, reviewed, and approved by the attorneys and their clients from which a final order will be submitted to the judge for review and approval of the settlement.

The entire process is so confidential that I cannot be compelled to testify about anything a party shares with me in confidence. I can merely advise a judge that a case either settled or did not settle. This assurance of confidence enables the process to work when it may look like an impossibility at the outset that there is any chance to settle the case.
It is my belief that when parties are truly committed to using their good faith best efforts to resolve a case, cases are settled more times than not.

Contact my office today to schedule an appointment.