Mediation & Negotiation

 

I have been a “mediator” most of my life. I have learned the “art” of negotiation over the years. While I feel that I am a pretty good deal maker, there are folks out there that are certainly better at making the deal work in their favor, not mine.

Since 2006, I have been certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Circuit/Civil mediator. I have been the “neutral” (in my best estimate) for more than 900 cases. Everything from helping people work out payment plans with the credit card companies, to landlord/tenant cases. I have always enjoyed “solving problems” by helping people to think outside the box to reach a resolution. In my opening statement, I ask people to approach the process with a spirit of compromise. An attorney friend of mine once told me, “a good mediation is one where everyone leaves a little unhappy because no one gets everything they want.

Recently, I have been feeling a little less than challenged. It does not come easy on every case, but lately I have been looking for other, lets say, more complicated cases. Enter training in Family mediation. Late April, early May 2016 Michelle & I attended the training to become a family mediators. We have multiple “hoops” to jump through with the observations, and documentation, but I believe that this “flavor” of mediation will be the challenge that I am looking for.

It is the dawn of a new day professionally, hopefully, we will be able to help some people in crisis to resolve some really tough issues, and start the healing process. On this page, I am going to post some general details about some of the cases that I have had over the years. In the vein of confidentiality of course, I will not give identifying information about when or where the cases took place. Just details that make the case stand out as being unusual and interesting. I hope that you read with interest. (if you a not a mediator, this stuff will not be interesting at all…)

Have a good one!