MEDIATOR OPENING STATEMENT
Welcome and Introduction (Building Credibility):
- Mr. And Mrs. Laller, Good Afternoon!
- My name is Anoushka Singh. We spoke on the phone earlier. Please feel free to
call me Anoushka, I actually prefer it. Would you prefer I call you Mr. and Mrs.
Laller or would you prefer your first names?
- Ok, Great
- Well, I would like to welcome you two to MNLU Mumbai’s mediation centre.
I commend you both for coming here today, to discuss your concerns and to
work out a solution together. I’m a certified mediator, trained by this very
university. I’ve been mediating cases for this center for three years now and I
am confident that this process will be fruitful.
Nature and Scope of Mediation:
- Have any of you ever been for a mediation before?
- Well, mediation involves a process where you can choose to work out the issues
between you, and you may or may not reach an agreement. Although I’m
confident that we will.
- As a mediator, I am going to walk you through this process. I will not make
decisions for you or to offer you legal counsel. My job is to facilitate and to help
the two of you come up with a solution that works for you both. In that role, I
will be neutral and impartial, meaning that I will not favour either one of you or
champion any particular solution.
- Of course, participating in mediation does not deter you from pursuing other
actions if you don’t reach agreement in this session. You have come here
voluntarily, that means you can leave voluntarily. However, I will let you know
that as opposed to litigation, mediation is less costly and time consuming. And
especially when it comes to disputes between families, it lets you, the parties
take an active role in your own dispute settlement and there are high chances
that we will leave this process amicably, with a solution that benefits both the
parties.
- Today what is going to happen is that each of you will have a chance to tell me
what brought you here and the issues that are important to you. Once we’ve
identified issues that need to be worked out, we’ll set an agenda of the items
that the two of you need to negotiate. I will then help you through the
negotiation process and document any agreements you may make. This is not
just a matter of one session, we’re going to following this same format
throughout our future sessions as well.
- If you have any concerns about how the process is going or what I am doing, or
even if you want to change anything about this, please let me know so we can
discuss it.
QUESTION ABOUT AGREEMENT TO MEDIATE GIVEN AT RECEPTION.
Confidentiality and Caucus:
- Here I have drawn up an Agreement to Mediate that you both can look over
nicely and sign at the end of this session.
- But I would like to draw your attention to the confidentiality clause. As you
may know this means that whatever will be said in this meeting remains
confidential within this room and the reason we mention this at the start, or why
this is important is to encourage you to be more open and candid. Honestly is
the first step to solving a dispute and I want the both of you to not be afraid to
say whatever is on your mind.
- I also want to inform you that in the event we don’t resolve your dispute here
and this case proceeds to court, I cannot be summoned by either side. I will take
notes through the course of this mediation just to keep my thoughts in order, but
I will destroy those notes after this session.
- At some point I may find it necessary to meet with you individually, or vice
versa, if there’s something that you want would want to say to me privately, you
can do so in something we call a private caucus. It just means a private meeting.
The same rules of confidentiality apply to the caucus, and I won’t tell the other
party what you say without your permission.
Time Constraints:
- I’ve reserved this room until 4:30 today. Are there any time constraints? Good.
If you need a break, let me know. Bathrooms are just across the hall.
Ground Rules:
- I think it’ll be helpful if we set up a couple of ground rules before we get started.
Just a couple of items that I’ve found really help the discussion and maintain
civility.
- For example, I’ve found that these sessions work best when we are respectful
and courteous to one another, even when we don’t agree. So please remember
that when one of you is speaking, it is important that they be allowed to finish.
If you have something you want to add when someone is talking, please write
it down and I promise we will get to your concerns
- And of course, let’s switch off our phones so we don’t get distracted by the tings
and the screen lighting up.
- Do either of you have anything to add? Okay. Are you both willing to following
these guidelines? Great.
Starting:
- Are there any questions before we get started?
- Okay, would any of you like to start first? I also have a coin, so we can flip it to
pick who goes first.
- Great, so Susheela could you tell us what has brought you here today?
